CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW 



Works of 

ROBERT NEILSON STEPHENS 



An Enemy to the King 

(Thirty-fifth Thousand) 

The Continental Dragoon 

(Twenty-fifth Thousand) 

The Road to Paris 

(Twenty-first Thousand) 

A Gentleman Player 

(Thirty-fifth Thousand) 

Philip Winwood 

(Seventieth Thousand) 
To be published Sept. 1. 

Captain Ravenshaw ; or, The 
Maid of Cheapside 



L. C. PAGE AND COMPANY, Publishers 
200 Summer St., Boston, Mass. 




"THERE WAS EXCHANGE OF THRUST AND PARRY." 

(See page 333). 



CAPTAIN 
RAVENSHAW! 

OR, 

THE MAID OF CHEAPSIDEl 


A Romance of Elizabethan London 






^ 

Robert Neilson Stephens I 

Author of " Philip Win wood," " A Gentleman 
Player," "An Enemy to the Kii^g,/ etc., etc. 



-HOWARD , 



"Hang him, swaggering rascal I . . . He a captain I . . . He 
lives upon mouldy stewed prunes and dried cakes. 1 

King Henry I V., Part II. 



* 
O 



f 




I Boston: L. C. PAGE & 
I COMPANY Publishers. Mdcccci 



Copyright, 1901 
BY L. C. PAGE & COMPANY 

(INCORPORATED) 
ctf AH rights reserved* 



Colonial 

Electrotyped and Printed by C. H. Simonds & Co. 
Boston, Mass., U.S.A. 



PREFACE. 

HERE is offered mere story, the sort of thing Mr. 
Howells cannot tolerate. He will have none of us 
and our works, poor " neo-romanticists " that we are. 
Curiously enough, we neo-romanticists, or most of us, 
will always gratefully have him ; of his works we 
cannot have too many ; one of us, I know, has walked 
miles to get the magazine containing the latest instal 
ment of his latest serial. This looks as if we were 
more liberal than he. He would, for the most part, 
prohibit fiction from being else than the record of 
the passing moment ; it should reflect only ourselves 
and our own little tediousnesses ; he would hang the 
chamber with mirrors, and taboo all pictures ; or 
if he admitted pictures they should depict this hour s 
actualities alone, there should be no figures in cos 
tume. 

But who shall decide in these matters what is to 
be and what is not to be ? Who shall deny that all 
kinds of fiction have equal right to exist ? Who 
shall dictate our choice of theme, or place, or time ? 
Who shall forbid us in our faltering way to imagine 
forth the past if we like ? The dead past, say you ? 

vii 

orr 



Vlli PREFACE. 

As dead as yesterday afternoon, no more. " Where s 
he that died o Wednesday?" As dead as the 
Queen of Sheba. But on the pages of Sienkiewicz, 
for example, certain little matters of Nero s time 
seem no more dead than last week s divorce trial in 
the columns of those realists, the newspaper report 
ers. All that is not immediately before our eyes, 
whether dead or distant, can be visualised only by 
imagination informed by description, and a small 
transaction in the reign of Elizabeth can be made 
as sensible to the mind s eye as a domestic scene 
between Mr. and Mrs. Jones in the administration of 
McKinley. But how can one describe authentically 
what one can never have seen ? You may propound 
that question to the realists ; they are often doing it, 
or else they see extraordinary things now and 
then 

But, now that I remember it, Mr. Howells is not 
really illiberal. He has, upon occasion, admitted a 
tolerance nay, an admiration for " genuine ro 
mance." But what is genuine romance? Is psycho 
logical romance, for instance, more " genuine " than 
melodramatic romance ? Are we not all we " neo- 
romanticists " aiming at genuine romance in some 
kind ? Shall there not be many misses to a hit ? 
many inconsiderable achievements to a masterpiece ? 
And we suffer under limitations which the great 
romancers had not to observe. We must be watch- 



PREFACE. IX 

ful against anachronisms, against many liberties in 
style and matter which the esteemed Sir Walter, for 
instance, might take and did take without stint. 
One s fancy was less restrained, in his day. One 
cannot, as he did, bring Shakespeare to Greenwich 
palace before the festivities at Kenilworth occurred ; 
or let a shopman recommend a pair of spectacles to 
a doctor of divinity with the information that the 
king, having tried them on, had pronounced them fit 
for a bishop ; or make the divine buy them with the 
cheerful remark that a certain reverend brother s 
advancing age gives hopes of an early promotion. 
Fancy such an exchange of jocularity between a shop 
"assistant" in Piccadilly and Doctor Ingram, while 
the late Doctor Creighton was Bishop of London ! 
Flow of fancy is easier upon such terms ; or, when 
one may even, as the great Dumas did, be so free of 
care for details as to have the same character in two 
places at the same time. 

It is not meant to be implied that Mr. Howells is 
thought to consider the work of Scott or Dumas 
genuine romance. If he has anywhere mentioned 
an example of what he takes to be true romance, I 
have missed that mention. I should like to read his 
definition (perhaps he has published one which I 
have not seen) of genuine romance. But I would 
rather he taught us by example than by precept. 
What a fine romance he could write if he chose ! 



X PREFACE. 

But as for us less-gifted ones, the " neo-romanti- 
cists," shackled as Scott and Dumas were not, we 
must work a while under the new conditions, the 
new checks upon our imagination, ere we shall get 
a masterpiece. Meanwhile none of us yields to Mr. 
Howells in admiration of a true romance, and none 
of us would be sorry to lay down the pen, or shut 
up the typewriter, some fine afternoon and find it 
achieved. But until then may we not have indiffer 
ent romances, just as we have indifferent realistic 
novels ? Why not, pray ? Again, shall one man, 
one group, one school, decide what shall be and what 
shall not ? " Dost thou think, because thou art 
virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale ? " 

Now, of merits which mere story may possess, and 
usually does possess in measure greater than the 
other sort of thing does, one is construction. 
Wherefore, the opponents of this sort of thing 
belittle that merit. But it is a prime merit, never 
theless. Is not the first thing for praise, in a 
picture, its composition ? in a building, its main 
design ? in a group of statuary, its general effect ? 
So, too, in a work of fiction. " Real life does not 
contrive so curiously," says Professor Saintsbury. 
Precisely ; if it did, what would be the good of 
fiction ? Neither does nature contrive well-ordered 
squares of turf, with walks, flower-beds, hedge-rows, 
shrubbery, trees set with premeditation ; shall we, on 



PREFACE. XI 

that account, make no gardens for ourselves ? Who 
shall ordain that there be no well-constructed plots 
in fiction because life, seen in sections as small as 
a novel usually represents, is not well constructed ? 
It is time somebody put in a word for plot. When 
all is said and done, the main thing in a story is the 
story. 

Mr. Howells said, long ago, that the stories were 
all told. It is doubtful. But even if it were certain, 
what of it ? Because there was an old tale of a 
king s wife whose lover lost the ring she gave him, 
whereupon the king, finding out, bade her wear it on 
a certain soon-coming occasion, and she was put 
to much concern to get it in time, was the world to 
go without the pleasure of D Artagnan s mission for 
Anne of Austria ? And what though Dumas himself 
had used the old situation of a real king imprisoned, 
and his " double " filling the throne in his place, 
were we to have no " Prisoner of Zenda ? " Or 
even if the story of the man apparently wooing the 
handsome sister, while really loving the plain sister, 
had already been told, as it had, was Mr. Howells 
prohibited from making it twice told, in " Silas 
Lapham ? " 

Now, as to this little attempt at romance in a cer 
tain kind, I wish merely to say, for the benefit of 
those who turn over the first leaves of a novel in a 
bookstore or library before deciding whether to take 



xii PREFACE. 

or leave it, that it differs from the usual adventure- 
story in being concerned merely with private life 
and unimportant people. Though it has incidents 
enough, and perils enough, it deals neither with war 
nor with state affairs. It contains no royal person ; 
not even a lord nor a baronet, indeed, for baronets 
had not yet been invented at the period of the tale. 
The characters are every-day people of the London 
of the time, and the scenes in which they move are 
the street, the tavern, the citizen s house and gar 
den, the shop, the river, the public resort, such 
places as the ordinary reader would see if a miracle 
turned back time and transported him to London 
in the closing part of Elizabeth s reign. The atmos 
phere of that place and time, as one may find it best 
in the less known and more realistic comedies of 
Shakespeare s contemporaries, in prose narratives 
and anecdotes, and in the records left of actual trans 
actions, strikes us of the twentieth century as a 
little strange, somewhat of a world which we can 
hardly take to be real. If I have succeeded in put 
ting a breath of this strangeness, this (to us) seeming 
unreality, into this busy tale, and yet have kept the 
tale vital with a human nature the same then as now, 
I have done something not altogether bad. Bad or 
good, I have been a long time about it, for I have 
grown to believe that, though novel-reading properly 
comes under the head of play, novel-writing properly 



PREFACE. Xlll 

comes under the head of work. My work herein 
has not gone to attain the preciosity of style which 
distracts attention from the story, or the brilliancy 
of dialogue which as the author of " John Ingle- 
sant " says " declares the glory of the author more 
frequently than it increases reality of effect." My 
work has gone, very much, to the avoidance of 
anachronisms. This is a virtue really possessed by 
few novels which deal with the past, as only the 
writers of such novels know. It may be a virtue 
not worth achieving, but it was a whim of mine to 
achieve it. Ill health forbade fast writing, the suc 
cess of my last previous book permitted slow writing, 
and I resolved to utilise the occasion by achieving 
one rare merit which, as it required neither genius 
nor talent, but merely care, was within my powers. 
The result of my care must appear as much in what 
the story omits as in what it contains. The reader 
may be assured at the outset, if it matters a straw to 
him, that the author of this romance of Elizabethan 
London (and its neighbourhood) is himself at home 
in Elizabethan London ; if he fails to make the 
reader also a little at home there in the course of 
the story, it is only because he lacks the gift, or 
skill, of imparting. 

ROBERT NEILSON STEPHENS. 

LONDON, June i, 1901. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER PAGE 

I. MEN OF DESPERATE FORTUNES . . . n 

II. DISTURBERS OF THE NIGHT . . -35 

III. MASTER JERNINGHAM S MADNESS . . 57 

IV. THE ART OF ROARING . . . . . 79 
V. PENNILESS COMPANIONS . 95 

VI. REVENGE UPON WOMANKIND . . .107 

VII. MISTRESS MILLICENT . . . .119 

VIII. SIR PEREGRINE MED WAY . . 133 

IX. THE PRAISE OF INNOCENCE . . . .14? 

X. IN THE GOLDSMITH S GARDEN . . .167 

XL THE RASCAL EMPLOYS His WITS . .183 

XII. MASTER HOLYDAY IN FEAR AND TREMBLING 203 

XIII. A RIOT IN CHEAPSIDE 213 

XIV. JERNINGHAM SEES THE WAY TO His DESIRE 238 
XV. RAVENSHAW FALLS ASLEEP .... 250 

XVI. THE POET AS A MAN OF ACTION . . 260 

XVII. DIRE THINGS BEFALL IN THE FOREST . 273 

XVIII. RAVENSHAW S SLEEP Is INTERRUPTED . 285 

XIX. KNAVE AGAINST GENTLEMAN . . . 304 

XX. HOLYDAY S FURTHER ADVENTURES . . 338 

XXI. THE CAPTAIN FORSWEARS SWAGGERING . 352 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



THERE WAS EXCHANGE OF THRUST AND PARRY " 

(see page 333} ..... Frontispiece 

" SHE LED ME BUT A SHORT CHASE " . 60 

" SIR, I THANK YOU FOR WHAT YOU DID THAT 

NIGHT " 128 

" BADE HIS VISITOR BE SEATED UPON A STONE BENCH, 

AND FACED HER SULLENLY" . . . .153 

" ONE HAND GESTICULATING, WHILE THE OTHER 

HELD HIS NEW - WRITTEN MANUSCRIPT " . . 203 
" SUDDENLY THE NARROW WAY BEFORE HIM BECAME 

BLOCKED WITH HUMAN CREATURES" . . .251 
" THERE . . . WAS THE MAID OF CHEAPSIDE, PALE 

AND BEWILDERED " 303 



CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 



CHAPTER I. 

MEN OF DESPERATE FORTUNES. 

" Though my hard fate has thrust me out to servitude, 

I tumbled into th world a gentleman." The Changeling. 

IT was long past curfew, yet Captain Ravenshaw 
still tarried in the front room of the Windmill tav 
ern, in the Old Jewry. With him were some young 
gentlemen, at whose cost he had been drinking 
throughout the afternoon. For their bounty, he 
had paid with the satirical conversation for which 
he was famed, as well as with richly embellished 
anecdotes of his campaigns. Late in the evening, 
the company had been joined by a young gallant 
who had previously sent them, from another cham 
ber, a quantity of Rhenish wine. This newcomer 
now ordered supper for the party, a proceeding at 
which the captain dissembled his long-deferred pleas 
ure for he had not eaten since the day before. 
Moreover, besides the prospect of supper, there was 
this to hold him at the tavern : he knew not where 



1:2; k . : -. CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

he should look for a bed, or shelter, upon leaving it. 
The uncertainty was a grave consideration upon so 
black and windy a night. 

Master Vallance, the gentleman who had ordered 
supper, had listened to the last of Ravenshaw s brag 
with a rather scornful silence. But the other young 
men had been appreciative ; it was their pose, or 
affectation, to be as wicked as any man might ; 
hence they looked up to this celebrated bully as to 
a person from whom there was much to be learned, 
and in whom there was much to be imitated. 

The group had been sitting before the wide fire 
place. But as soon as the roast fowls were brought 
in, there was a movement to the long table in the 
middle of the room. The captain was gifted with 
active, striding legs and long, slashing arms. So he 
was first to be seated, and, as he leaned forward 
upon his elbows, he seemed to cover more than his 
share of the table. He had a broad, solid forehead, 
an assertive nose, a narrow but forward chin, gray 
eyes accustomed to flash with a devil-may-care defi 
ance, a firm mouth inured to a curve of sardonic 
derision. His rebellious hair, down-turning mous 
taches, and pointed beard were of a dark brown 
hue. He was a man of good height ; below the 
sword-belt, he was lank to the ground ; above, he 
broadened out well for chest and shoulders. His 
voice was quick, vigorous, and not unpleasantly met- 



MEN OF DESPERATE FORTUNES. 13 

allic. He was under thirty, but rough experience 
had hardened his visage to an older look. His 
jerkin, shirt, hose, shoes, and ruff also betokened 
much and severe usage. 

Master Vallance, in spotless velvet doublet and 
breeches, and perfectly clean silk stockings, looked 
at him with contemptuous dislike. 

"Take heed you scorch not the capon with your 
nose, roaring Ravenshaw," said the youth, quietly. 

It was not Ravenshaw s habit to resent allusions 
to his character as a " roaring boy;" indeed he en 
couraged the popular idea which saddled him with 
that title, at that time applied to bullies of the 
taverns. But some circumstance of the moment, 
perhaps something in the young coxcomb s air of 
aristocratic ridicule, guided the epithet to a sensitive 
spot. 

" Captain Ravenshaw, by your leave," he said, 
instantly, in a loud tone, with an ironical show of 
a petitioner s deference. 

" Forsooth, yes ; a captain of the suburbs," replied 
the young gentleman, with a more pronounced sneer. 

Now at this time toward the end of the reign 
of Queen Elizabeth and for a long time after, cer 
tain of the suburbs of London were inhabited numer 
ously by people of ill repute. There were, especially, 
women whom the law sometimes took in hand and 
sent to the Bridewell to break chalk, or treated to a 



14 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

public ride in a cart, as targets for rotten vegetables, 
addled eggs, and such projectiles. Many an unem 
ployed soldier, or bully who called himself soldier, 
would bestow, or impose, his protection upon some 
one of these frail creatures in the time of her pros 
perity, exacting from her the means of livelihood. 
Hence did Ravenshaw see in the title of " captain 
of the suburbs " an insult little less than lay in that 
of "Apple-John," or "Apple-squire," itself. 

When a gentleman calls another by the name of a 
bad thing, it is not necessarily implied that he thinks 
the other is that thing ; but it is certain that he 
means to be defiantly offensive. Therefore, in this 
case, the captain s part was not to deny, but to re 
sent. Not only must he keep up his reputation with 
the other gentlemen as a man not to be affronted, 
but he really was in a towering rage at being bearded 
with easy temerity by such a youngling. 

" What ! " quoth he. " Thou sprig ! Thy wits 
are strayed away, methinks. Or has thy nurse been 
teaching thee to use a pert tongue ? " 

" Nay, save your own tongue for the tasting of 
yon capon. I speak only truth. Your reputation 
is well known." 

" Why, thou saucy boy, I may not spit butterflies 
on my sword, nor provoke striplings by giving them 
the lie ; else " 

The captain finished with a shrug of vexation. 





MEN OF DESPERATE FORTUNES. 15 

"Look ye, gentlemen, he lays it to my youth," 
continued the persecutor, "but there s yet a horse 
of another colour. This captain is free enough with 
his bluster and his sword ; he has drawn quarts of 
blood for a single word that misliked him, upon 
occasion ; but he will bear a thousand scurvy af 
fronts from any man for the sake of a supper. You 
shall see " 

" Supper ! " echoed the captain, springing up. 
" Do you cast your filthy supper in my teeth ? Nay, 
then, I ll cast it in thine own." 

With this, thoroughly enraged, Captain Raven- 
shaw seized the particular capon to which the gallant 
had alluded, and flung it across the table into the 
gallant s face. It struck with a thud, and, rebound 
ing, left the young man a countenance both startled 
and greasy. Not content, the offended captain 
thereupon reached forth to the fowl which had been 
served as companion to the capon, and this he 
hurled in the same direction. But he aimed a little 
too high, moreover the fop ducked his head, and so 
the juiq missile sped across the room, to lodge 
plump against the stomach of a person who had 
just then come into view in the open doorway. 

This person showed lean in body and shabby in 
raiment. He made a swift, instinctive grasp at the 
thing with which he had come so unexpectedly in 
contact, and happened to catch it before it could 



1 6 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

fall to the floor. He held it up with both hands 
to his gaze a moment, and then, having ascertained 
beyond doubt its nature, he suddenly turned and 
vanished with it. Let us follow him, leaving behind 
us the scene in the tavern room, which scene, upon 
the landlady s rushing in to preserve order for the 
good name of the house, was very soon after restored 
to a condition of peace by the wrathful departure of 
Ravenshaw from the company of an offender too 
young for him to chastise with the sword. 

The ill-clad person who clutched the cooked fowl, 
which accident had thus summarily bestowed upon 
him, made short work of fleeing down the stairs and 
out into the black, chill February night. Once 
outside, though he could not see his hand before 
his face, he turned toward Cheapside and stumbled 
forward along the miry way, his desire evidently 
being to put himself so far from the Windmill 
tavern that he might not be overtaken by any one 
who could lay claim to the fowl. 

The air was damp as well as cold. The fugitive, 
keeping his ungloved hands warm by spreading them 
around the fowl, which was fresh from the spit, had 
to grope his way through an inky wind. He listened 
for possible footfalls behind him, but he heard none, 
and so he chuckled inwardly and held his prize close 
to his breast with a sense of security. Now and 
then he raised it to his nostrils, in anticipation of 



MEN OF DESPERATE FORTUNES. I/ 

the feast he should enjoy upon arriving at the rest 
ing-place he had in mind. He would have made a 
strange spectacle to anybody who might have been 
able to see him from one of the rattling casements 
as he passed ; but so dark it was that downlookers 
could no more have seen him than he could see 
the painted plaster, carved cross-timbers, project 
ing windows, and gabled roof-peaks of the tall 
houses that lined the narrow street through which 
he fled. 

At one place a lantern hanging over a door threw 
a faint light upon him for a moment, and showed a 
young man s face, with sharp features and a soft 
expression ; but the face was instantly gone in the 
darkness, and there was no other night-walker abroad 
in the street to have seen it while it was visible. 

" Surely," he meditated, as he went, "the time of 
miracles has returned. And even a starved scholar 
is found worthy of Heaven s interposition. With the 
temerity of the famished, I enter a tavern, ascend 
the stairs, and steal into a room which I take to be 
empty because no sound comes from it, my only 
hope being to pilfer a little warmth nobody will 
miss, perchance to fall heir to a drop of wine at 
the bottom of a glass, or a bone upon an uncleared 
table. And lo, I find myself in the presence of a 
gentleman asleep before a pot of mulled canary, 
which he has scarce wet his throat withal. In three 



1 8 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

swallows I make the canary my own, just in time to 
set down the pot before in comes a tapster. I feign 
I am in search of friends, who must be in t other 
chamber. To make good the deceit, I must needs 
look in at t other chamber door ; when, behold, some 
follower of Mars, who looks as hungry as myself, 
pelts me with poultry. It is plainly a gift of the 
gods, and I am no such ill-mannered clown as to 
stay and inquire into the matter. Well, gaudcanius 
igitur, my sweet bird ; here we are at St. Mary Cole 
Church, on the steps of which we shall make each 
other s better acquaintance. Jove ! or rather Bac 
chus ! what tumult a pint or so of mulled wine 
makes in the head of a poor master of arts, when 
too suddenly imbibed ! " 

He went half-way up the steps and sat down, 
crouching into the smallest figure possible, as if he 
might thus offer the least surface to the cold. Sink 
ing his teeth into the succulent breast of the roast 
fowl, he forgot the weather in the joy of eating. 
But he had scarce taken two bites when he was fain 
to suspend his pleasure, for the sound of rapid foot 
falls came along the way he had just traversed. He 
took alarm. 

" Sit quiet now, in God s name, Master Holyday ! " 
he mentally adjured himself. " Tis mayhap one in 
search of the fowl. Night, I am beholden to thee 
for thy mantle." 



MEN OF DESPERATE FORTUNES. IQ 

The person strode past and into Cheapside with 
out apprehension of the scholar s presence upon the 
steps. The scholar could not make out the man s 
looks, but could divine from sundry muttered oaths 
he gave vent to, and from his incautious haste of 
movement, that he was angry. 

"God a mercy! how he takes to heart the loss 
of a paltry fowl ! " mused Master Holyday, resuming 
the consumption of his supper on the church steps. 
" For, certes, twas from the Windmill he came ; from 
his voice, and the copiousness of his swearing, I 
should take him to be that very soldier whom the 
gods impelled to provide me with supper. Well, he 
is now out of hearing ; and a good thing, too, for 
there comes the moon at last from the ragged edge 
of yon black cloud. Blow, wind, and clear the sky 
for her. Pish ! what is this ? Can I not find my 
mouth ? Ha, ha ! tis the mulled wine." 

The scholar had indeed struck his nose with the 
fowl, when he had meant to bring it again between 
his teeth. He was conscious of the increased effect 
of the wine in other ways, too, and chiefly in a 
pleasanter perception of everything, a sense of agree 
able comicality in all his surroundings, a warmed 
regard for all objects within view or thought. This 
enhanced the enjoyment of his meal. The moon 
light, though frequently dimmed by rushing scraps 
of cloud, made visible the streets near whose June- 



2O CAPTAIN RA VENSHA W. 

tion he sat, so that the house fronts stood strangely 
forth in weird shine and shadow. The scholar, 
shivering upon the steps, was the only living creature 
in the scene. Yet there seemed to be a queer half- 
life come into inanimate things. The wind could be 
heard moaning sometimes in unseen passages. The 
hanging signs creaked as if they now and then 
conversed one with another in brief, monosyllabic 
language. 

"In the daylight," thought the scholar, "men and 
women possess the streets, their customs prevail, 
and their opinions rule. But now, forsooth, the 
house fronts and the signs, the casements and the 
weathercocks, have their conference. Are they con 
sidering solely of their own matters, or do they tell 
one another tales of the foolish beings that move 
about on legs, hurrying and chattering, by day ? 
Faith, is it of me they are talking ? See with what 
a blank look those houses gaze down at me, like 
a bench of magistrates at a rogue. But the house 
at the end, the tall one with the straight front, I 
swear it is frowning upon me. And the one beside 
it, with the fat oriel windows, and whose upper 
stories belly so far out over the street, as I m a 
gentleman and a scholar, tis laughing at me. Has 
it come to this ? to be a thing of mirth to a monster 
of wood and plaster, a huge face with eyes of glass ? 
For this did Ralph Holyday take his degrees at 



MEN OF DESPERATE FORTUNES. 21 

Cambridge University, and was esteemed as able 
a disputant as ever came forth of Benet College ? 
Go thy ways, Ralph ; better wert thou some fat 
citizen snoring behind yon same walls, than Master 
Holyday, magister artium, lodging houseless on the 
church steps with all thy scholarship. Not so, 
neither ; thou wouldst be damned rather ! Hark, 
who is it walks in Cheapside, and coming this way, 
too ? " 

He might have recognised the tread as the same 
which had some minutes before moved in the oppo 
site direction ; though it was now less rapid, as if 
the owner of the feet had walked off some of his 
wrath. Coming into view at the end of the Old 
Jewry, that owner proved to be in truth the very 
soldier of whom Holyday had caught a glimpse at 
the tavern. The soldier, turning by some impulse, 
saw the scholar on the steps ; but his warlike 
gaze had now no terror for Master Holyday, who 
had put at least half of the fowl beyond possible 
recovery, and whose appetite was no longer keen. 

"God save you, sir ! " said the scholar, courteously. 
" Were you seeking a certain roast fowl ? " 

"Not I, sirrah," replied Captain Ravenshaw, ap 
proaching Holyday. " You are he that stood in 
the doorway, perchance ? Rest easy ; the fowl was 
none of mine. I should scorn to swallow a morsel 
of it." 



22 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

And yet he eyed it in such a manner that Master 
Holyday, who was a good judge of a hungry glance, 
said, placidly : 

"You are welcome to what is left of it here." 
Which offer the scholar enforced with a satisfied 
sigh, indicating fulness of stomach. 

The captain made a very brief pretence of silent 
hesitation, then accepted the remainder of the feast 
from the scholar s hands, saying : 

" Worshipful sir, it should go hard with me ere I 
would refuse true hospitality. Have I not seen you 
about the town before this night ? " He sat down 
beside Holyday, and began to devour the already 
much-diminished fowl. 

" I know not," replied the scholar, who had a 
mild, untroubled way of speaking. " Twas last 
Michaelmas I came to London. I have kept some 
riotous company, but, if I have met you, I remember 
not." 

" Slight ! you know then who I be ? " 

" Not I, truly." 

" Yet you call me riotous." 

"That argues no previous knowledge. Though I 
be a Cambridge man, it takes none of my schol 
arship to know a gentleman of brawls at sight, a 
roaring boy, a swaggerer of the taverns " 

" Why, boy, why ! Do you mean offence in these 
names ? " 



MEN OF DESPERATE FORTUNES. 2$ 

" No offence in the world. You see I bear no 
sword, being but a poor master of arts. None so 
bold of speech as the helpless, among honourable 
men of the sword." 

"Some truth in that. Look ye, young sir, hast 
ever heard of one Ravenshaw, a captain, about the 
town here ? " 

" Ay, he is the loudest roarer of them all, I have 
heard ; one whose bite is as bad as his bark, too, 
which is not the case with all of these braggadocios ; 
but he is a scurvy rascal, is he not ? a ragged hector 
of the ale-houses. Is it he you mean ? " 

" Ha ! that is his reputation ? Well, to say truth, 
he may comfort himself by knowing he deserves it. 
But the world used him scurvily first nay, a plague 
on them that whine for themselves ! I am that 
Ravenshaw." 

" Then I must deal softly ; else I am a hare as 
good as torn to pieces by the dogs." 

" Why, no, scholar, thou needst not be afeard. I 
like thee, young night-walker. Thou wert most civil 
concerning this fowl. Od s light ! but for thee, my 
sudden pride had played my belly a sad trick this 
night. Thou art one to be trusted, I see, and when 
I have finished with this bird, I will tell thee some 
thing curious of my rascal reputation. But while I 
eat, prithee, who art thou ? and what is it hath sent 
thee to be a lodger on the steps of St. Mary Cole 



24 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

Church ? Come, scholar ; thou might do worse than 
make a friend of roaring Ravenshaw." 

" Nay, I have no enemies I would wish killed. 
But I am any man s gossip, if he have inclination for 
my discourse, and be not without lining to his head 
piece. My name is Ralph Holyday ; I am only son 
to Mr. Francis Holyday, a Kentish gentleman of 
good estate. He is as different a manner of man 
from me as this night is from a summer day. He 
is stubborn and tempestuous ; he will have his way, 
though the house fall for it. He has no love of 
books and learning, neither ; but my mother, seeing 
that I was of a bookish mind, worked upon him un 
ceasingly to send me to the university, till at last, 
for peace sake, he packed me off to Cambridge. 
While I was there, my mother died rest her soul, 
poor lady ! After I took my degrees, my father 
would have it that I come home, and fit myself to 
succeed him. Home I went, perforce, but I had no 
stomach for the life he would lead me. I rather pre 
ferred to sit among my books, and to royster at the 
ale-house in company with a parson, who had as great 
love for learned disputation as for beer and venison. 
Many a pleasant day and night have I sat with good 
Sir Nicholas, drinking, and arguing upon the soul s 
immortality. This parson had sundry friends, too, 
good knaves, though less given to learning than to 
tossing the pot ; they were poachers all, to say truth, 



MEN OF DESPERATE FORTUNES. 2$ 

and none better with the crossbow at a likely deer 
than the vicar. Thus, when I ought to have been 
busy in the matter of preserving my father s deer, 
I would be abroad in forbidden quest of other men s ; 
twas, I know not how, the more sportive and curious 
occupation. Well, my father stormed at these ways 
of mine, but there was no method of curing them. 
But one day he became fearful his blood should die 
out. He must have descendants, he swore, and to 
that end I must find a wife straightway. Here is 
where we crossed weapons. I am not blind to the 
charms of women, but I am cursed with such timidity 
of them, such bashfulness when I am near them, that 
if I tried to court one, or if one were put upon me 
as wife, I should fall to pieces for shaking. I would 
sooner attempt anew the labours of Hercules than go 
a-wooing for a wife." 

" Tis a curious affliction," remarked the captain, 
pausing in his feast. " But many men have it ; fight 
ing men, too. There was Dick Rokeby, that was 
my comrade in France ; he that fought with Harry 
Spence and me, each one gainst t other two, upon 
the question of the properest oath for a soldier to 
swear by. Harry was one of your Latin fellows, 
and held for the buckler of Mars. Dick Rokeby 
said an Englishman could do no better than swear 
by the lance of St. George. And I vowed by the 
spurs of Harry Fift I would put down any man 



26 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

that thought better of any other oath. We fought 
it out, three-cornered, in Grey s Inn Fields ; and the 
spurs of Harry Fift won the day. As for women, 
I am their enemy on other grounds. There was one 
I trusted, and when I was at the wars she wronged 
me with my friend. I have sworn revenge upon the 
sex, curse em ! So you would not marry ? " 

"That I would not. The only women I can ap 
proach without trembling at the knees, and my face 
burning, and my tongue sticking fast, are serving- 
maids and common drabs, and such as I would not 
raise to a place of quality. So the end was that, 
after he had raged and threatened for six months, 
my father cast me forth, swearing I should never 
cross his doorsill, or have a penny of him, till I 
should come back with a wife on my arm. And 
so I came last Michaelmas to London." 

" And how hast made shift to live since then ? " 

"Why, first upon some money my friend Sir 
Nick thrust upon me ; then by the barter of my 
clothes in Cornhill ; and meanwhile I had writ a 
play, a tragedy, that Master Henslowe gave me five 
pounds for." 

" I would fain see thy tragedy. How is it 
named ? " 

" God knows when it may be played ; it has not 
yet been. It is ( The Lamentable Tragedy of Queen 
Nitocris. The story is in a Greek history." 



MEN OF DESPERATE FORTUNES. 2J 

" What, you dare not even discourse with a mere 
gentlewoman, yet write the intimate histories of 
queens ? " 

11 Yes, friend ; there are many of us poor poets do 
so. We herd with trulls, and dream of empresses. 
(A passable decasyllabic line, that !) But I have not 
been able to sell another tragedy, nor yet to have 
my sonnets printed, whereby I might get ten pounds 
for a dedication. And so you see me as I am." 

"Well," said the captain, having by this time 
pretty well stuffed himself, "I like thee the bet 
ter for being a poet. Such as you know me to 
be, you will scarce believe it ; but I am one or 
was once fitted by nature to take joy in naught 
so much as in poetry, and the sweet pastoral life 
that poets praise so. But never whisper this ; I 
were a dead man if the town knew the softness 
underneath my leathern outside. But in very truth, 
as for books, I would give all the Plutarchs in the 
world for one canto of The Faerie Queene or ten 
pages of the gentler part of Sidney s &lt; Arcadia. 
Had I won my choice, I had passed my days, not 
in camps and battles, taverns and brawls, but in 
green meadows, sitting and strolling among flowers, 
reading some book of faery or shepherds for I 
never could make up poetry of my own." 

"That picture belies the common report of 
Captain Ravenshaw." 



28 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

" Ay, Master Holyday ; swaggering Ravenshaw is 
no shepherd of poesy. But hearken to what I prom 
ised thee : I, too, am a gentleman s son ; the family is 
an old one in Worcestershire, observe I call it not 
my family. I was early a cast-off scion, and for no 
fault of mine, I swear. Twas the work of a woman, 
a she-devil, that bewitched my father. But God 
forbid I should afflict any man, or rouse mine own 
dead feelings, with the tale of my wrongs ! I was 
no roaring boy then ; I was a tame youth, and a 
modest. But when I found myself out in the world, 
I soon learned that with a mild mien, unless a man 
have a craftiness I lacked, he is ever thrust back 
ward, and crushed against the wall, or trodden upon 
in the ditch. And so for policy I took the time and 
pains to make myself a master of the sword, not 
that I might brawl, but that I might go my ways in 
peace. In good time, I killed two men or so that 
were thought invincible ; and I supposed the noise 
of this would save me from affronts after that." 

" And was it not so ? " 

"Perchance it had been, if my manner had com 
ported with the deed. But I still went modest in 
my bearing, and so my prowess was soon forgot ; 
some may have thought my victories an accident of 
fortune ; besides, strangers knew not what I had done, 
and saw no daring in me ; and so I found myself as 
unconsidered as ever. And at last, when the woman 



MEN OF DESPERATE FORTUNES. 29 

I loved turned treacherous and robbed me of the 
friend at court on whom my fortune hung, and 
malice was hatched in me, I bethought me of a 
new trick. I took on a bold front, an insolent 
outside ; I became a swearer, a swaggerer, a roaring 
boy, a braggart ; and lo ! people soon stepped aside 
to let me pass. I found this blustering masquerade 
a thousand times more potent to secure immunity 
than my real swordsmanship had been. The trans 
formation was but skin-deep at first ; but the wars, 
and my hard life and my poverty, helped its increase, 
so that now it has worked in to the heart of me. 
There was a time it made me ill to sink my rapier 
into a man s soft flesh, but I grew to be of stronger 
stomach. And when I first put on the mask of 
brazen effrontery, I was often faint within when I 
seemed most insolent. But now I am indeed roaring 
Raven shaw, all but a little of me, and that little often 
sleeps." 

"But this insolence of thine, real or false, seems 
not to have made thy fortune." 

" Nay, but it has made my poverty the less con 
temptible. Lay not my undoing to it. When the 
war lasted, I fared well enough, as long as I kept 
the captainship my friend had got me ere the woman 
played me false. A score of things have happened 
to bring me to this pass. My braggadocio, ofttimes 
enforced with deeds, hath neither helped nor hin- 



3O CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

dered my downfall ; it hath stood me in good stead 
in fair times and foul. Pish, man, but for my repu 
tation, and the fear of my enmity or violence, could 
I have run up such scores at taverns as I have done, 
being penniless ? How often have I roared dicing 
fools, and card-playing asses, out of the stakes when 
they had fairly won em ? Could any but a man who 
has made himself feared do such things, and keep 
out of Newgate or at least the Counter i the Poultry 
here ? " 

" Why, is not that rank robbery, sir ? " 
"Yes, sir, and rank filling of my empty stomach. 
Tut, scholar, you have been hungry yourself ; roof 
less, too. Be so as oft as I have been, and with as 
small chance of mending matters, and I ll give a 
cracked three farthings for what virtue is left in you. 
Boy, boy, hast thou yet to learn what a troublesome 
comrade thy belly is, in time of poverty ? What a 
leader into temptation ? Am I, who was once a gen 
tleman, a rascal as well as a brawler ? Yes, I am a 
rascal. So be it ; and the more beholden I to my 
rascality when it find me a dinner, or a warm place 
to sleep o nights. Would it might serve us now. 
Who are these a-coming ? " 

Some dark figures were approaching from up the 
Old Jewry, attended by two fellows bearing links, for 
the moonlight was not to be relied upon. The figures 
came arm in arm, at a blithe but unsteady gait, sway- 



MEN OF DESPERATE FORTUNES. 3! 

ing and plunging. Presently the captain recognised 
the gentlemen who had been his afternoon compan 
ions at the sign of the Windmill. But Master Val- 
lance was not with them, having doubtless taken 
lodging at one of the inns near the tavern. The 
sparks, jubilant with their wine, no sooner made out 
the captain s form than they hailed him heartily. 

" What, old war boy ! " cried Master Maylands, a 
spruce and bold young exquisite. "Well met, well 
met ! Hey, gentles, we ll make a night on t. Cap 
tain, you shall captain us, captain ! " 

" Ay, you shall captain us about the town," put in 
Master Hawes, who spoke shrilly, and with a lisp, 
for which he would have been admired had it been 
affected, but for which he was often ridiculed because 
it was natural. " You shall teach us to roar as loud 
as you do. What say you, gallants ? Shall we go to 
school to him to learn roaring ? He is the master 
swaggerer of all that ever swaggered." 

The proposal was received with noisy approval, the 
roysterers gathering around the captain where he 
sat, and grasping him by the sleeves to draw him 
along with them. 

" Softly, gentlemen, softly," said the captain. " Ye 
seem of a mind here. But do you consider ? There 
is much I might impart, in the practice of swag 
gering. Would you in good sooth have me for a 
tutor ? " 



32 CAPTAIN RA V ENS HA W. 

There was a chorus of affirmative protestation. 

The captain thought it politic to urge a scruple. 

"But bethink ye," quoth he, "to be a true swag 
gerer is no child s play. And you are of delicate 
rearing, all ; meant to play lutes in ladies cham 
bers ; court buds, gallants." 

"Why, then," said Maylands, "we shall be gallants 
and swaggerers, too ; an you make swaggerers of us, 
we will make a gallant of you, will we not, boys ? " 

" Nay," replied Ravenshaw, " I have been a gallant 
in my time, and need but the clothes to be one again ; 
and so does my friend here, who is a gentleman and 
a scholar, though out of favour with fortune. Now 
there be many tricks in the swaggering trade; the 
choice of oaths is alone a subtle study, and that is 
but one branch of many. I ll not be any man s 
schoolmaster for nothing." 

" Faith, man, who asks it ? " cried Master May- 
lands. "We ll pay you. For an earnest, take my 
cloak ; my doublet is thick." He flung the rich 
broadcloth garment over the captain s uncloaked 
shoulders. " You need but the clothes to be a gal 
lant again ? Fore God, I believe it ! Tom Hawes, 
I ve cloaked him ; you doublet him. Barter your 
doublet for his jerkin ; your cloak will hide it for the 
night ; you ve a score of doublets at home." 

Master Maylands, in his zeal, fell upon the unob- 
jecting Hawes, and in a trice had helped to effect the 



MEN OF DESPERATE FORTUNES. 33 

transfer, the captain feigning a helpless compliance 
in the hands of his insistent benefactors. It occurred 
to another of the youths, Master Clarington, to ex 
change his jewelled German cap of velvet for Raven- 
shaw s ragged felt hat ; whereupon Master Dauncey, 
not to be outdone, would have had his breeches 
untrussed by his link-boy, to bestow upon the cap 
tain, but that the captain himself interposed on the 
score of the cold weather. 

"But I ll take it as kindly of you," said Raven- 
shaw, "if you should have a cloak for my scholar 
friend. How say you, Master Holyday ? Thou lt 
be one of us? Thou lt be a swaggering gallant, 
too ? " 

Master Holyday, inwardly thanking his stars for 
the benevolent impulse which had made him share 
the fowl, and so elicit this gratitude, would have 
agreed to anything under the moon (except to woo 
a woman) for the sake of warmer clothes. 

" Yes, sir," said he, with his wonted studious gravity 
of manner; "if these gentlemen will be so gracious." 

The gentlemen were readily so gracious. After 
a few rapid exchanges, which they treated as a great 
piece of mirth, they beheld the scholar also cloaked 
and richly doubleted and hatted. He wore his fine 
garments with a greater sense of their comfort than 
of his improved appearance, yet with a somewhat 
pleasant scholastic grace. 



34 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

The captain strutted a little way down the street, 
to enjoy the effect of his new cloak; but, as he 
stepped into Cheapside, the moon was clouded, and 
he could no longer see the garment tailing out finely 
over his sword behind. A distant sound of plodding 
feet made him look westward in Cheapside, and he 
saw a few dim lanterns approaching from afar. 

" Lads, the watch is coming," said he. " Shall we 
tarry here, and be challenged for night-walkers ? 

"Marry," quoth Master Maylands, leaping forward 
to the captain s side, " we shall take our first lesson 
in swaggering now ; we shall beat the watch." 

" As good a piece of swaggering gallantry as any," 
said the captain. " Come, my hearts ! " 

And he led the way along Cheapside toward the 
approaching watchmen. 



CHAPTER II. 

DISTURBERS OF THE NIGHT. 

" I will have the wench." 

" If you can get her." The Coxcomb. 

THE captain gave instructions, as he and his pupils 
strode forward. The two boys with the lights were 
left behind to take shelter in a porch, so that the 
peace-breakers might advance in the greater dark 
ness. It was enough for their purpose that they 
had the lanterns of the watch to guide them. 

The watchmen came trudging on in ranks of two. 
Presently there could be heard, from somewhere 
among them, a voice of lamentation, protest, and 
pleading, with a sound of one stumbling against 
sundry ill-set paving-stones of the street. 

"They have a prisoner," said the captain to his 
followers. " We ll make a rescue of this. Remem 
ber, lads, no swords to be used on these dotards ; 
but do as I ve told ye." 

In another moment, and just when the watchmen 
seemed about to halt for consideration, but before 
their leader had made up his mind to cry, " Stand ! " 
the captain shouted, " Now, boys, now ; a rescue ! 

35 



36 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

a rescue ! " and the roysterers rushed forward with a 
chorus of whoops. 

The watch, composed for the most part of old 
men, had scarce time to huddle into a compact form 
when the gallants were upon them. The assailants, 
keeping up their shouting, made to seize the watch 
men s bills, with which to belabour them about their 
heads and shoulders. One or two were success 
ful in this ; but others found their intended vic 
tims too quick, and were themselves the recipients 
of blows. These unfortunate ones, bearing in mind 
the captain s directions, essayed to snatch away lan 
terns, and to retaliate upon the watchmen s skulls ; 
and whoever failed in this, rushed to close quarters, 
grasped an opponent s beard, and hung on with all 
weight and strength. 

The captain s operations were directed against the 
pair who had immediate charge of the prisoner. Pos 
sessing himself of the bill of one, whom, by the same 
act, he caused to lose balance and topple over, he 
obtained the other s voluntary retreat by a gentle 
poke in the paunch. The prisoner himself proved 
to be a man of years, and of port ; he had a fat, 
innocent face, and he showed, by his dress and every 
other sign that became visible when the captain held 
up a lantern before him, to be a gentleman. What 
such a guileless, well-fed old person could have done 
to fall afoul of the night-watch, Captain Ravenshaw 



DISTURBERS OF THE NIGHT. 37 

could not imagine. For the time, the old person s 
astonishment and relief at being set free were too 
great to permit his speaking. 

Meanwhile, Master Holyday, having been the last 
to come up, found the melee so suddenly precipitated, 
and so complete without his intrusion, that he stood 
back looking for a convenient place and time for him 
to plunge into it. But it seemed impossible for him 
to penetrate the edge of the scuffle, or to connect 
himself with it in any effective way. So he hung 
upon the skirts ; until at last two of the watchmen, 
being simultaneously minded for flight, bore down 
upon him from out of the hurly-burly. He instinc 
tively threw out his arms to stay their going ; where 
upon he found himself grappled with on either side, 
and from that instant he had so much to do himself 
that he lost all observation of the main conflict. Nor 
had the other fighters any knowledge of this side 
matter. But their own sport was over ere their wind 
was out ; the watchmen, being mainly of shorter 
breath and greater prudence than their antagonists, 
soon followed the example of flight ; and the gallants, 
soberer by sundry aches, smarts, and bruises, were left 
masters of the field. None of the watch was too much 
battered to be able to scamper off toward the Poultry. 

"A piece of good luck, sir," began Captain Raven- 
shaw, to the released prisoner, around whom the 
gallants assembled while they compared knocks and 



38 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

trophies. " You had been scurvily lodged this night, 
else." 

" Sirs, I thank ye," replied the old gentleman, find 
ing at last his voice, though it was the mildest of 
voices at best. He was still shaky from having been 
so recently in great fright ; but he gathered force as 
his gratitude grew with his clearer sense of escape. 
" God wot, I am much beholden to ye. You know 
not what you have saved me from." 

" To say truth, a lousy hole behind an iron grat 
ing were no pleasant place for one of your quality," 
said Raven shaw. 

" Oh, tis not that so much, though twere bad 
enough," said the gentleman, with a shudder. " Tis 
the lifetime of blame that would have followed when 
my wife had heard of it. You must know, sirs, I am 
a country gentleman, and I am not known to be in 
London ; my detention would be noised about, and 
when it reached my wife s ears sfoot, sirs, I am 
for ever your debtor in thankfulness ! " And he 
looked his meaning most fervently. 

" Why did the watch take you up ? " inquired the 
captain. 

" Why, for nothing but being abroad in the streets. 
The plaguey rascals said I was a night-walker, and 
that I behaved suspiciously. I did nothing but stand 
and wait at the Standard yonder, for one I had agreed 
to meet ; but when I saw the watch coming I stepped 



DISTURBERS OF THE NIGHT. 39 

back, to be out of their lantern-light. This stepping 
back, they said, proved I was a rogue ; and so they 
clapped hands on me, and fetched me along. But 
now I bethink me, sirs : the person I was to meet 
what will she do an she find me not at the place?" 
The old gentleman showed a reawakened distress, 
and, turning toward the direction whence the watch 
had brought him, looked wistfully and yet reluctantly 
into the darkness. 

" Oho ! She ! " quoth the captain. " No wonder 
your wife 

" Nay, think no harm, I beg. Nay, nay, good sirs ! 
Sure, tis an evil-thinking world. Well, I must e en 
bid ye good night, and leave ye my best thanks. 
Would I might some day repay you this courtesy. 
My name, sirs but no, an ye ll pardon me, I durst 
not ; the very stones might hear it, and report I was 
in London. But if I might know " 

" Surely. We have no wives in the country, that 
we must keep our doings from, have we, boys ? And 
we are free of the streets of London, aren t we, boys ? 
My name, sir, is Ravenshaw Captain Ravenshaw ; 
and this gentleman " 

He was about to introduce his companions by the 
names of great persons of the court, when, casting 
his eyes over the group for the first time since the 
link-boys had come up with their torches, he was 
suddenly otherwise concerned. 



40 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

" Why, where s Master Holyday ? Where the 
devil s our scholar ? " 

The gallants looked from one to another, and then 
peered into the surrounding darkness, but saw no 
one ; nor came any answer to the captain s shout, 
" What ho, Holyday ! Hollo, hollo ! " 

" An t please you," spoke up one of the link-boys, 
"while we waited yonder, the watchmen ran past us ; 
and methought two of them dragged a man along 
between them ; but twas so dark, and they went 
so fast " 

" Marry, that s how the wind lies," cried the 
captain. "Gallants, here s more business of a 
roaring nature. A rescue ! Come, the hunt is up ! 
To the cage, boys ! We may catch em on the way." 

Without more ado, Ravenshaw led his followers, 
link-boys and all, on a run toward the Poultry, leav 
ing the grateful old gentleman in the darkness and 
to his own devices. 

They hastened to the night-watch prison, but over 
took no one on the way ; it was clear that the watch 
men had made themselves and their prisoner safe 
behind doors. An attack on the prison would have 
been a more serious business than the captain could 
see any profit in. So, abandoning the luckless 
scholar to the course of the law, the night-disturbers 
made their way back to Cheapside, wondering what 
riotous business they might be about next. 



DISTURBERS OF THE NIGHT. 41 

" What asses are these ! " thought the captain. 
" They have warm beds to go to, yet they rather wear 
out their soles upon the streets in search of trouble. 
Well, it helps me pass the night, and I am every way 
the gainer by it ; so if puppies must needs learn to 
play the lion, may they have no worse teacher." 

When they came to the Standard, that ancient 
stone structure rising in the middle of the street, 
they walked around it to see if the old gentleman 
was there ; but the place was deserted. 

"Here were a matter to wager upon, now," ob 
served the captain : " Whether he met his mistress 
after all and bore her away, or whether he found 
her not and went wisely to bed." 

A few steps farther brought the strollers opposite 
the mouth of Bread Street. The sound of men s 
voices came from within this narrow thoroughfare. 

" Marry, here be other fellows abroad," quoth the 
captain. " How if we should light upon occasion for 
a brawl ? Then we should see if we could put them 
down with big words. Come, lads." 

They turned into the narrow street and proceeded 
toward a group whose four or five dark figures were 
indistinctly marked in the flickering glare of a single 
torch. This group appeared to be circled about a 
closed doorway opposite All-hallows Church, at the 
farther corner of Watling Street, in which doorway 
stood the object of its attention. 



42 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

" Some drunken drab o the streets, belike," said 
the captain, in a low voice, to his followers. " We ll 
feign to know her, and we ll call ourselves her 
friends ; that will put us on brawling terms with 
those gentlemen. They are gallants, sure, by their 
cloaks and feathers." 

The gentlemen were, it seemed, too disdainful of 
harm to interrupt their mirth by looking to see who 
came toward them. The heartless amusement on 
their faces, the tormenting tone of the jesting words 
they spoke, gave an impression somewhat like that of 
a pack of dogs surrounding a helpless animal which 
they dare not attack, but which they entertain them 
selves by teasing. 

The captain stepped unchallenged into the little 
circle, and looked at the person shrinking in the 
doorway, who was quite visible in the torchlight. 

" Slight ! " quoth the captain. "This is no trull ; 
tis a young gentlewoman." 

His surprise was so great as to make him for the 
moment forget the plan he had formed of precipitat 
ing a quarrel. The young gentlewoman looked very 
young indeed, and very gentle, being of a slight fig 
ure, and having a delicate face. She leaned close 
against the door, at which she had, as it seemed, put 
herself at bay. Her face, still wet with tears, re 
tained something of the distortion of weeping, but 
was nevertheless charming. Her eyes, yet moist, 



DISTURBERS OF THE NIGHT. 43 

were like violets on which rain had fallen. Her lips 
had not ceased to quiver with the emotion which had 
started her tears. Her hair, which was of a light 
brown, was in some disorder, partly from the wind ; 
for the hood of the brown cloak she wore had been 
pulled back. It might easily be guessed who had 
pulled it, for the gentleman who stood nearest her, 
clad in velvet, and by whose behaviour the others 
seemed to be guided, held in his hand a little black 
mask, which he must have plucked from the girl s 
face. 

This gentleman was tall, nobly formed, and of a 
magnificent appearance. His features were ruddy, 
bold, and cut in straight lines. He wore silken black 
moustaches, and a small black beard trimmed to two 
points. 

At the captain s words, this gentleman looked 
around, took full note of the speaker in a brief 
glance, and scarce dropping his smile, a smile care 
less and serene, of heartless humour, said, calmly : 

" Stand back, knave ; she is not for your eyes." 

The captain had already thought of the inequality 
between this fragile damsel and her persecutors ; 
despite his account against womankind, her looks 
and attitude had struck within him a note of com 
passion ; and now her chief tormentor had called 
him a knave. He remembered the purpose with 
which he had arrived upon the scene. 



44 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

" Knave in your teeth, thou villain, thou grinning 
Lucifer, thou thou !" The captain was at a 
loss for some word of revilement that might be used 
against so fine a gentleman without seeming ridicu 
lously misapplied. "Thou beater of the streets for 
stray fawns, thou frighter of delicate wenches ! " 

" Why, what motley is this ? " replied the velvet 
gallant. " What mummer that is whole-clad above 
the girdle, and rags below ? what mongrel, what 
patch, what filthy beggar in a stolen cloak ? Avaunt, 
thing ! " 

The gentleman grasped the gilded hilt of his 
rapier, as if to enforce his command if need be. 

"Ay, draw, and come on!" roared the captain. 
" You ll find me your teacher in that." 

At the same moment a restraining clutch was put 
upon the gentleman s sleeve by one of his compan 
ions, who now muttered some quick words of pru 
dence in his ear. Whether it was due to this, or to 
the captain s excellent flourish in unsheathing, he 
of the double-pointed beard paused in the very move 
ment of drawing his weapon, and a moment later 
slid the steel back into its velvet scabbard. In his 
desistance from a violent course, there was evidently 
some consideration private to himself and his friend, 
some secret motive for the avoidance of a brawl. 

" Say you so ? " quoth the gentleman, blandly, as 
if no untoward words had passed. " Well, if you 



DISTURBERS OF THE NIGHT. 45 

can be my teacher, you must be as good a rapier-and- 
dagger man as any in the kingdom, and there s an 
end on t. Are you that ? " 

" Sir, you might have tried me, and found out," 
said the captain, considerably mollified at the other s 
unexpected politeness, and putting up his sword. 

" Why, marry, another time I may have occasion 
to see your skill nay, I mean not a challenge; I 
should enjoy to see you fight any man." 

" But what of this gentlewoman, sir ? " said the 
captain, interrogatively. 

"Why, you will not dispute, it is my prize, by 
right of discovery. You a swordman, and not know 
the laws of war ? Faith, we men of the sea are better 
learned." 

" Nay, but is she of the breed to make a prize of ? 
Methinks she looks it not." 

" Pish, man, a pretty thing or so ; a citizen s filly, 
mayhap, that hath early slipped the halter ; she will 
not tell her name ; but what we find loose in the 
streets after curfew, we know what it is, whatsoever 
it may look." 

The girl now spoke for the first time since the 
captain had seen her. Her voice, though disturbed 
by her feelings, was not shrill like a child s, but 
had the fulness of blossoming womanhood, and 
went with the smoothness common to well-bred 
voices. 



46 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW, 

" I was never in the streets at night before," she 
said, sobbingly. " There was one I was to meet, who 
was waiting for me at the Standard in Cheapside." 

" Eh ! " quoth the captain, with a suddenly in 
creased interest. 

" Some gallant prentice, belike," said the gentle 
man in velvet, with his singular smile of gaiety and 
cruelty. " Some brave cavalier of the flat cap, whom 
we frighted off." 

" Twas not so ! " cried the girl. " He was not 
frighted off. I was going to him, and was near the 
place, but I could not see him yet, twas so dark. 
And then the watch came, with their lanterns, and I 
stood still, so they might not observe me. But I saw 
them go to the Standard, and take my my friend 
that waited for me. I knew not what to do, and so 
I stayed where I was, all dismayed. And then, but 
not till the watch had gone away with him, came 
you cruel gentlemen and found me. So he was not 
frighted by you. Alas, if he had but seen me, and 
come to meet me ! " 

" But he was soon free of the watch," said the 
captain, wondering what such a damsel should have 
to do in surreptitiously meeting such a worshipful 
old married gentleman. " Came he not back to the 
place ? Tis a good while since." 

" How know you about him ? " queried the girl, 
with wonder. 



DISTURBERS OF THE NIGHT. 47 

" Tis no matter," said the captain, forgetting for 
the nonce to brag of an exploit. " He ought to have 
come back to the place to seek you ; he was no true 
man, else." 

" Belike he did, then," said the girl, quickly, with 
hope suddenly revived. 

"Nay, tis certain he waits not at the Standard; 
we came from there but now. Doubtless his taking 
up by the watch gave him his fill of waiting there. 
He seemed a man with no stomach for night 
risks." 

"Then," said the girl, mournfully, "he must have 
come back after I had run from these gentlemen. 
Then he would think I could not meet him ; twas 
past the time we had set. Oh, villains, that I should 
run from you, and miss my friend, and yet be caught 
at last ! He would give all up, and go to his inn, 
and back to the country at daybreak. All s over 
with me ! Oh, ye have much to answer for ! " 

" How prettily it cries ! " quoth the handsome 
gentleman. 

"Faith, sir," said the captain, good-humouredly, 
" let s see an twill laugh as prettily. How if we led 
this dainty weeper to her friend s inn, and roused 
him out ? Perchance then we shall have smiles for 
these showers. Where does he lie, little mistress ? " 

"Alas, I know not. Twould be near the river, 
I think." 



48 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

" Oho, that he might take boat quicker," said the 
gentleman. "And now will he fly without thee at 
daybreak, say st thou ? Never sorrow, sweetheart ; 
I ll boat thee to Brentford myself to-morrow." 

"There be scores of inns near the river," said the 
captain to the girl. " But we might make trial at 
some of them, an we knew by what name to call for 
your friend." 

" Nay, that I ll never tell ! I know not if he 
would give his true name at the inn. Alas, what 
shall I do ? " 

"Why, come to the tavern and make merry," said 
Velvet Suit, "as we have been inviting you this 
half-hour." 

" I ll freeze in the streets sooner ! " 

" Is there need of that, then ? " asked the captain. 
" Hast no place in London to go to ? Came you not 
from some place to meet your friend ? " 

" From my father s house, of course." 

" Then why not go back to it ? What s to fear ? 
Twas late when you came forth, was it not ? I ll 
wager thy people were abed. Did they know you 
meant to play the runaway ? " 

" Tis not like they know it yet," she replied, a 
little relieved from complete dismay, but still down 
hearted. 

" And sure the way you came by must be open 
still," went on the captain. 



DISTURBERS OF THE NIGHT. 49 

" I locked the door behind me ; but I left the key 
where I can find it, if you gentlemen will let me go. 
You will, sirs ; I ll thank ye so much ! I am undone 
every way, else." 

" Of course we ll let you go," said the captain, 
decisively, with an oblique eye upon the velvet gal 
lant. "We ll be thy body-guard, forsooth; we ll 
attend thee to thy door." 

" Nay, let me go alone, I beg ! " 

" Why, would you risk more dangers ? " 

" I have not far to go. Pray, pray, follow me not ! 
Pray, let me be unknown to ye, good sirs ! Think, 
if my mishap this night were noised about, and 
my name known think, if my father were to 
hear it ! " 

" Ay, true," said the captain. " Go alone, but on 
condition, if you see harm ahead, you turn back to 
us ; you must cry for help, too. And so we give 
our words of honour not to " 

" Softly, softly, Master Meddler," broke in the 
handsome gentleman. "Be not so free with your 
betters words of honour. I know not what hath 
allowed you to live so long after thrusting in upon 
this company " 

But again he was checked by the man at his elbow. 
This was a broad-breasted man of medium height, 
who seemed, as well as his plain dark cloak would 
show, to be of solid, heavy build ; as for his face, its 



5O CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

lower part was so covered by a thick, spade-shaped 
beard, and the upper part so concealed by the brim 
of a great Spanish hat, purposely pulled down over 
the eyes, that one could not have obtained a sufficient 
glimpse for future recognition. He spoke to his gay 
companion in a brief whisper, but his words had 
instant weight. 

" Tush ! tis not worth bloodshed," said the gay 
gentleman, having heard him. " Let the wench go ; 
what is one fawn among so many ? But on condi 
tion. I crave more of your acquaintance, Sir Sword- 
man ; we may come to a fight yet, with better 
reason ; so my friends and I will let the girl go hang, 
an you and your party come drink with us." 

"We are your men there," replied the captain, 
warming up within, at such a happy issue ; " but the 
taverns are barricaded at this hour." 

" I know where the proper knock will open doors 
to us. Tis agreed, then. Wench, go your ways ; 
good night ! " 

He moved aside to let her pass, and the girl, 
stepping from the doorway, with a single look of 
thanks to the captain, ran swiftly toward Cheapside. 
She was out of the range of the torchlight in a 
moment. As soon as her figure was invisible in the 
night, the gentleman in velvet left his companion, 
and, taking the captain fraternally by the arm, started 
toward Knightrider Street. 



DISTURBERS OF THE NIGHT. 51 

Ravenshaw, yielding in spite of an inclination to 
stay and listen for any distant sign of alarm from 
the girl, strode mechanically along; he heard his 
own followers and the gentleman s friends coming 
close behind, and starting up conversations. Lighted 
by the two link-boys and the other torch-bearer, the 
party at length stopped before a tavern door in 
Thames Street. 

The handsome gallant knocked a certain number 
of times, and, while he waited for answer, the party 
huddled into a close group before the door. Every 
face was now in the torchlight, and the captain cast 
a glance over the little company. Suddenly a strange 
look came into his face. 

" What s this ? " he said to the gentleman, quickly. 
"Where s your other friend he with the hat pulled 
over his eyes ? " 

For answer, the gentleman gave a curious smile, 
showing white teeth ; and his eyes sparkled mock 
ingly. 

" Death and hell ! Gods and devils ! " cried the 
captain, roaring in earnest, and whipping out his 
sword. " He slunk back and followed the maid, 
did he ? Ye d trick me, would ye ? Now, by the belly 
of St. George " At this point, though the velvet 
gallant had swiftly drawn in turn, the group having 
opened a clear space at the captain s first excla 
mation, Ravenshaw broke off to another thought. 



52 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

" Nay, we ll go after that hound first ; the scent s 
warm yet ; and then we ll look to you. Come, lads 
of mine ! " 

He dashed through the group, and headed for 
Cheapside ; his four pupils and the two link-boys 
tarried not from following him. The other gentle 
men looked to their leader for direction ; whereupon 
he, as the tavern door opened, put up his sword and, 
laughing quietly, led them into the house. 

" They ll be rare dogs an they catch Jerningham," 
quoth he. " The fools ! their noise would warn him 
even if they should chance upon his track." 

The captain and his companions found Bread 
Street and Cheapside black, silent of human sounds, 
and, wherever they carried their lights, empty of 
human forms. They traversed two or three of the 
side streets, and listened at the corners of others, 
but without result. Where, in this night-wrapped 
London, did the two objects of their search now 
draw breath ? 

If the girl had indeed not had far to go, she was 
probably safe ; and if she were safe the man s doings 
mattered little. So, and as the gallants were begin 
ning to show signs of weariness, the inspiriting effect 
of their last wine having died out, the captain piloted 
them back to the tavern at whose door he had left 
his quarrel scarce begun. 

He found the tavern door barred ; and no amount 



DISTURBERS OF THE NIGHT. 53 

of knocking and shouting sufficed to open it. The 
tired gallants were yawning, leaning against one 
another (they dared not lean against the tavern, 
lest something might be dropped upon them from 
an upper window), and talking of bed. Therefore 
the captain drew off to a safe distance from the 
tavern, and thus addressed his following : 

"Ye have had but a poor lesson in swaggering 
to-night, masters. To be true roaring boys, we 
should have forced a brawl on those gallants 
rather for the brawl s sake than for the girl s. To 
help the helpless hath nought to do with true swag 
gering, save where it may be a pretext. But this 
lambkin looked so tender, I forgot myself, and be 
haved discreetly, seeing her cause was best served 
that way. The essence of roaring is not in concern 
for the cause, but in putting down the enemy. If 
you be in the wrong, so much the greater your 
credit as a bully. And now, if we wait for those 
cozeners to come forth 

" Oh, let em come forth and be damned," said 
Master Clarington, sleepily. "I m for bed. Light 
me to my lodging, boy. Who ll keep me company 
to Coleman Street ? " 

As the three other young gentlemen had, at the 
time, their city lodgings in that direction, they were 
quite ready to avail themselves of Master Glaring- 
ton s initiative in yielding to the claims of fatigue. 



54 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

The captain was not such a fool as to risk their 
favour by opposing their decision, seeing how their 
zest for adventure had oozed out of them. He 
therefore accompanied them northward through Bow 
Lane with outward cheerfulness. On the way, he 
considered within himself whether or not to fish for 
an invitation to a night s lodging, or for the loan 
of money to pay for a bed himself. He bethought 
him that man was fickle, particularly in the case 
of would-be daredevils who soon grew sleepy on their 
wine ; if he would retain the patronage of these four, 
he must not go too far upon it at first. He had too 
much experience to sacrifice to-morrow s pound for 
to-night s shilling. So, when he came to Cheap- 
side, where his companions should turn eastward, he 
stopped, and said : 

"I must wish ye good night here, gentlemen. 
You will be at the Windmill again to-morrow, may 
hap ? " 

" What ? " said Master Maylands, carelessly. " Go 
you no farther our way ? Where lodge you, then ? " 

" Oh, I lodge out Newgate way," replied the cap 
tain, vaguely. " A good night to ye all ! Ye ll find 
me at the Windmill after dinner. Merry dreams, 
lads ! Faith, I shall be glad to get under cover ; 
the wind is higher, methinks." 

A chorus of good nights answered him drowsily, 
and he was left in darkness, the link-boys going with 



DISTURBERS OF THE NIGHT. 55 

the four gentlemen, who hung upon one another s 
arms as they plodded unsteadily along. 

The captain trudged westward in Cheapside, in 
mechanical obedience to the suggestion pertaining 
to his lie. 

" I should better have got myself taken up of the 
watch," he mused, as he gathered his new cloak 
about him, and made himself small against the wind. 
"Then I should have lain warm in the Counter. 
That scholar is a lucky fellow. But that would 
have lost me the opinion of my four sparks. Well, 
it shall go hard but they continue bountiful. Cloak, 
doublet, and bonnet already a good night s booty. 
Tis well I found em in the right degree of drink. 
As for that wench I was an ass, I should have 
let those roysterers have their way of her ; twould 
have served my grudge against the sex. But such a 
child ! Hey ! What fellow comes here with the 
lantern and the wide breeches ? An it be a con 
stable, I ll vilify him, and be lodged in the Counter 
yet. How now, rascal ! what, Moll, is it thou, up 
to thy vixen tricks again ? " 

The newcomer, who now faced Ravenshaw and 
held up a lantern to see him the better, wore a 
man s doublet and hose, and a sword ; but a careful 
scrutiny of the bold features would have revealed to 
any one that they were those of a sturdy young 
woman, of the lower class. The daughter of Frith, 



56 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

the shoemaker of Aldersgate, had yet to immortalise 
herself as Moll Cutpurse, but she had some time 
since run away from domestic service and taken to 
wearing men s clothes. 

" Good even, Bully Ravenshaw," quoth she, in a 
hoarse, vigorous voice. "Why do you walk the 
night, old roaring boy ? " 

" For want of a lodging, young roaring girl." 

"Is it so ? Look ye, then ; I m abroad for the 
night, on matters of mine own. Here s my key ; 
tis to the back yard gate of the empty house in 
Foster Lane, where the spirit walks. Dost fear 
ghosts ? " 

" Fear ghosts ? Girl, I make em ! " 

"Then you ll find in that yard a penthouse, 
wherein is a feather-bed upon boards. Tis a good 
bed I stole it from a brewer s widow." 

And so the captain lodged that night in a coal- 
house, thankfully. 



CHAPTER III. 

MASTER JERNINGHAM S MADNESS. 

"I must and will obtain her ; I am ashes else." The Humourous Lieutenant. 

Now it happened that while Captain Ravenshaw 
and his companions were speeding up Bread Street 
toward Cheapside, the Spanish-hatted gentleman of 
whom they were in quest was plodding down Fri 
day Street toward the tavern at whose door they 
had left his friends. When he arrived there, he 
gave a knock similar to that which had served to 
open the house to the handsome gallant of the 
double-pointed beard ; and presently, after being 
inspected through a small grating in the door, he 
was admitted. 

" Is Sir Clement Ermsby above ? " he asked the 
sleepy menial who had let him in. 

" Yes, your worship. An t please you, he and his 
friends came in but a little while ago. They re in 
the Neptune room. A cold night, your worship." 

" How many of his friends ? " 

"Three, sir. There were e en five or six more 
with him outside, at first ; but they went their ways. 
Methinks there was some quarrel, but I know not." 

57 



58 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

The gentleman pushed his hat back from his 
brow, and looked a trifle relieved. He stood for 
a moment with his eye on the servant, as if to see 
that the man barred the door properly, and then he 
went up-stairs to a room at the rear of the tavern. 
The tapestry of this chamber represented the sea, 
with the ocean god and a multitude of other marine 
figures. Around the fire sat the newcomer s friends, 
smoking pipes ; they greeted him with laughter. 

"Ho, ho!" cried the handsome gallant. "She 
scaped you, after all ! The pinnace was too fleet ! " 

" I gained all I wished," said the broad-breasted 
gentleman, coolly, speaking in curt syllables. " I 
had no mind to close in combat. I did not even 
let her know I was giving chase. But I saw what 
port she made into ; I know where to seek her when 
the time is propitious." 

With a faint smile of triumph over his comrades, 
the gentleman, who had thrown off his plain cloak 
while speaking, stepped close to the fire, removed 
his gloves, and began to warm his fingers. He was 
of middle stature, thick-bodied, heavily bearded, of a 
brown complexion ; his expression of face was melan 
choly, moody, dreamy ; as he gazed into the fire he 
seemed lost in his own thoughts. His momentary 
smile had brought a singularly sweet and noble light 
into his face ; but that light had vanished with the 
smile. 



MASTER JERNINGHAM S MADNESS. 59 

"I must thank you, Ermsby, and all of ye," he 
said, after a short silence. " You drew the fellow 
away like the best of cozeners. How got you rid 
of him so soon ? " 

"Faith, by his taking note of your absence, and 
guessing what was afoot," replied the handsome gal 
lant. " He s e en looking for you now. A murrain 
on him ! his ribs should have felt steel, but for thy 
fear of a brawl, Jerningham." 

" Thou rt a fool, Ermsby," answered Jerningham, 
continuing to gaze with saturnine countenance into 
the fire ; " and my daring to call thee so tells how 
much I fear a fight for its own sake. How often 
must I put it to you in plain terms ? If I be found 
concerned in roystering or rioting, I forfeit the coun 
tenance of my pious kinsman, the bishop. With 
that I forfeit the further use of his money in our 
enterprise. Without his money, how are we to com 
plete the fitting of our ship ? No ship, no voyage. 
No voyage, no possessing the fertile islands ; and so 
no fortune, and there s an end. Pish, man, shall we 
lose all for a sight of some unknown rascal s filthy 
blood ? Not I. You shall see me play the very 
Puritan till the day my ship lifts anchor for the 
Western seas." 

" You have played the Puritan to-night, sooth," 
said Ermsby. " To steal after a wench under cover 
of night, and find out her house for your hidden 



6O CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

purposes in future, there s the soul of Puritanism. 
Where does she live ? " 

" I ll still be puritanical, and keep that knowledge 
to myself," said Jerningham, with the least touch of 
a smile. 

" Nay, man, the secret is ours, too ! " protested 
Ermsby. "We helped you to it. Come, you had 
best tell ; that will put us on our honour to leave her 
all to you. If you don t, by my conscience, I ll hunt 
high and low till I find out for myself, and then I 
won t acknowledge any right of yours to her. Tell 
us, and make us your abettors ; or tell us not, and 
make us your rivals." 

Jerningham was silent for a moment, while he 
motioned the attending servant to pour him out some 
wine ; then, evidently knowing his men, he replied : 

" She led me but a short chase ; which was well, 
as I had to go upon my toes the sound of her steps 
was all I had to guide me. When the sound stopped, 
in Friday Street, I heard the creaking of a gate ; it 
meant she had gone into a back yard. I went on 
softly, feeling the walls with my hands, till I came to 
the gate ; and there I heard a key turning in a door. 
I had naught to do but find out what house the gate 
belonged to. Twas the house at the corner of 
Cheapside." 

"And Friday Street? Which side of Friday 
Street ? " 




" SHE LED ME BUT A SHORT CHASE. 



MASTER JERNINGHAM S MADNESS. 6 1 

"The east side. Tis a goldsmith s shop. Does 
any one know what goldsmith dwells there ? " 

No one remembered. These were all gentlemen 
who, when they were not at sea, divided most of 
their time between the country and the court ; at 
present they lodged toward the Charing Cross end of 
the Strand, in a row of houses opposite the river 
side palaces of the great. But Jerningham himself 
lived with his kinsman, the bishop, in Winchester 
House, across the Thames. 

"Time enough to learn that, and win a score 
of goldsmith s daughters, and tire of em too, ere 
the ship is fitted," said Ermsby, losing interest in the 
subject; whereupon the conversation shifted to the 
matter of the ship, then being repaired at Deptford. 

From this they fell to dicing, all but Jerning 
ham, who sat looking steadily before him, as if he 
saw visions through the clouds of tobacco smoke he 
sent forth. Presently was heard the noise of pound 
ing at the street door below. 

" Tis that rascal come back, ten to one ; he has 
given over hunting you," said Ermsby to Jerningham. 

"Then be sure you open not, Timothy," said 
Jerningham, addressing the tavern drawer who was 
staying up to wait upon those privileged to use the 
house after closing hours. 

"No fear," replied Timothy. "They may ham 
mer till they be dead, an they give not the right 



62 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

knock. I ll e en go look down from the front 
window, and see who tis." 

Ermsby went with him ; and presently returned 
with him, saying : 

" Tis our man ; and Timothy here knows him. It 
seems he is one Ravenshaw, a roaring captain. I ve 
heard of the fellow ; he talks loud in taverns, and 
will fight any man for sixpence ; a kind of ranger of 
Turnbull Street 

"Nay," corrected Timothy; "he is no counterfeit, 
as most of those rangers be. He roars, and brags, 
and looks fierce, as they do ; but he was with Sir 
John Norris in Portugal and France, and he can use 
the rapier, or rapier and dagger, with any man that 
ever came out of Saviolo s school. I have seen him 
with the foils, in this very room, when he made all 
the company wonder. And tis well known what 
duels he has fought. One time, in Hogsdon 
fields " 

" Oh, that is the man, is it ? " said Jerningham, 
cutting off the drawer s threatened torrent of remi 
niscence. "Then so much the better he has grown 
tired of beating at the door. He has gone away, I 
trust. As ye love me, gentlemen, no scandals till the 
ship is armed, provisioned, manned, and ready every 
way for the tide that shall bear us down the Thames." 

" And look that you bring no scandal in your siege 
of this goldsmith s daughter," said Ermsby, jocularly. 



MASTER JERNINGHAM S MADNESS. 63 

" Trust me for that," replied Jerningham. 

It was several weeks after this night, and the 
chilling frown of winter had given place to the smile 
of May, when, upon a sunny morning, Sir Clement 
Ermsby, followed by a young page, stepped from a 
Thames wherry at Winchester stairs to confer with 
Master Jerningham upon the last preparations for 
their voyage. They were to sail in three days. 

Jerningham was pacing the terrace, frowning upon 
the ground at his feet, his look more moody than 
ever, and with something distraught in it ; now and 
then he drew in his breath audibly between his lips, 
or allowed some restless movement of the hands to 
belie his customary self-control. 

" What a devil is it afflicts you, man ?" was Erms- 
by s greeting, while his page stood at a respectful 
distance, and began playing with two greyhounds 
that came bounding up. "This manner is some 
thing new. I ve seen it for a week in you. Be- 
shrew me if I don t think an evil spirit has crept 
into you. What s the matter ? " 

" Nothing s the matter," said Jerningham, in a 
growling tone. " Tis my humour." 

" Tis a humour there s no excuse for, then, on a 
day like this, and with such a prospect before one s 
eyes." As Sir Clement spoke, he looked over the 
balustrade to the Thames and the countless-gabled 
front of the spire-studded city. 



64 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

The Thames and London were fair to see then. 
The river was wider than it is now, and was com 
paratively clean. Swans floated upon its surface, 
and it was lively with passenger craft, sailboats, 
rowboats, tilt-boats, and boats with wooden cabins, 
gaily decorated barges belonging to royalty and 
nobility. The Thames, with its numerous landing- 
stairs, was the principal highway of London. When 
the queen went from Whitehall to Greenwich, it was, 
of course, by this water thoroughfare. It was the 
more convenient way of transit between the city and 
Westminster, where the courts were held. It had 
but one bridge at London then, the old London 
Bridge of the children s song, " London Bridge is 
falling down ; " the bridge that was a veritable street 
of houses, and which stood some distance east of 
where the present London Bridge stands. To many 
people the better way of crossing to Southwark, 
when they went to the playhouses or the bear 
gardens, was by boat. Water-men were at every 
landing-place, soliciting custom. When at work, 
they often sang as they plied the oars. The rich, 
when they would amuse themselves upon the river 
in their handsome tilt-boats, took musicians with 
them. On a fine May day, in the reign of Elizabeth, 
when the little green waves sparkled in the sunshine, 
the Thames alone was a sight worth looking at from 
the terrace of Winchester House, which, as every- 



MASTER JERNINGHAM S MADNESS. 65 

body knows, was on the Southwark side, west of 
the beautiful Church of St. Mary Overie (now St. 
Saviour s), and which thus commanded a fine view 
of river and city-front. 

Beginning at the far west, where the river came 
into sight after passing Westminster and Whitehall, 
its northern bank presented first the long row of 
great houses that came as far as to the Temple, 
houses that were really town castles, with spacious 
gardens, whose river walls were broken by gates, 
whence were steps descending to the water. Nearer, 
grew the stately trees of the Temple garden ; nearer 
yet, rose from the river s edge the frowning walls of 
the Bridewell, once a palace, and of Baynard s Castle. 
And here the eye was drawn up and back from the 
water-front, which henceforth abounded with wharves, 
by the huge bulk of St. Paul s, which stood amidst a 
multitude of ordinary buildings like a giant among 
pigmies, the old St. Paul s, Gothic, with its square 
tower in the centre, its crosses crowning the ends 
and corners, its delicate pinnacles rising from its 
flying buttresses, its beautiful doorways and rose 
windows. Coming still eastward, the eye swept a 
great mass of gabled houses ascending in irregular 
tiers from the river, the sky-line broken by church 
towers and steeples innumerable. Directly opposite 
Winchester House, the river stairs that fell from the 
tall, narrow buildings were mainly for commercial 



66 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

uses. A little further east, the view was shut in by 
the close-packed houses on the bridge, so that one 
could not see the Tower, or the larger shipping off 
the wharves in the lower river. 

But this morning the sight was nothing to Master 
Jerningham, whose only answer to his friend was to 
look the more harassed and woebegone. Ermsby 
suddenly took alarm. 

" How now ? Has anything ill befallen at Dept- 
ford ? " he asked. 

"No. All goes forward fast too fast." And 
Jerningham sighed. 

" How too fast ? How can that be ? Good God, 
man, have you lost heart for the voyage ? " 

" Never that. You know me better. But we 
shall soon be sailing, and the hours go, and yet I 
am no further with oh, a plague on secrecy, tis 
that wench. There is no way under heaven I 
can even get speech of her." 

" What wench ? " inquired Ermsby, in whose 
thoughts there had been more than one wench 
since the reader first made his acquaintance. 

" What wench ! Gods above, is there more than 
one? worth a man s lying awake at night to sigh 
for, I mean." 

" And is there one such, then ? Faith, an there 
be, I have not seen her of late." 

"Yes, you have. Scarce three months ago." 



MASTER JERNINGHAM S MADNESS. 6/ 

"That s three ages, where women are concerned. 
Who is this incomparable she ? " 

"That goldsmith s daughter you remember the 
night we chased her from Cheapside down Bread 
Street, and came near a quarrel with Ravenshaw 
the bully, and I followed to see where she lived ? " 

" Faith, I remember. A pretty little thing. And 
she has held you off all this time ? Man, man, 
you must have blundered terribly ! What plan of 
campaign have you employed against her ? " 

" I have not been able to pass words with her, 
I tell you. She rarely goes forth from home at 
all, and when she does tis with both parents, and 
a woman, and a stout prentice or two. I have 
stood in wait night after night, thinking she might 
try to run away again ; but she has not." 

"Why, you know not your first letter in the 
study of how to woo citizens womankind. Go to 
her father s shop while she is there, and contrive 
to have her wait upon you. Flattery, vows, and 
promises sound all the softer for being whispered 
over a counter." 

"I have watched, and when I have been busy 
at the ship, my man Gregory has watched. But 
she never comes into the shop. She has a devil 
of shrewdness for a father ; a rock-faced man, of 
few words, with eyes on everything. He already 
suspects me ; for now whenever I go near his shop 



68 CAPTAIN RA VENSHA W. 

he comes from his business and stares at me as 
if he offered defiance." 

" A plague on these citizens. They dare outface 
gentlemen nowadays. They are so rich, and the 
law is on their side, curse em ! A goldsmith thinks 
himself as good as a lord." 

"This one has taught his very prentices to look 
big at me as I pass. And Gregory he is a sly 
hound, as you know, and when I put him on his 
mettle for the conveyance of a letter to the girl s 
waiting-woman, he was ready to sell himself to the 
devil for the wit to accomplish it. But he could 
not ; and they have smelt a purpose in his doings, 
too. The last time he went near the shop, and 
stood trying to get the eye of some serving-maid at 
a window, two of the goldsmith s prentices came 
out and, pretending not to see him, ran hard against 
him and laid him sprawling in the street." 

" And he let them go with whole skins ? Had 
he no dagger ? " 

"Of what use? They are very stout fellows, 
all in that shop. And they would have had only 
to cry &lt; Clubs, and every prentice in Cheapside 
would have come to cudgel Gregory to death. 
They have too many privileges in the city, pox on 
em ! " 

" You should have begun by making friends with 
the goldsmith openly, and so got access to his house. 



MASTER JERNINGHAM S MADNESS. 69 

Then you could have cozened him when the time 
came." 

"But tis too late for that now. Besides, these 
citizens distrust a man the first moment, when they 
have wives and daughters. Oh, we have tried every 
way, both myself and Gregory. Gregory found a 
pot-boy, at the White Horse tavern, that knew one 
of the maids in the house, and we tried to pass a 
letter by means of those two. But the letter got 
into the father s hands, and the maid was cast off, 
and I m glad I signed a false name. I know not 
if Mistress Millicent ever saw the letter." 

" Is Millicent her name ? " 

"Ay. She is the only child. Her father is 
Thomas Etheridge, the goldsmith, at the sign of the 
Golden Acorn, in Cheapside at the corner of Friday 
Street. And nothing more do I know of her, but 
that I am going mad for her. And now that I have 
opened all to you, in God s name tell me what I 
shall do. Though we sail in three days, I must have 
her in my arms for one sweet hour, at least, ere 
I go. Laugh if you will ! Call it madness. Tis 
the worse, then, and the more needs quenching. 
What shall I do?" 

" Use a better messenger ; one that can get the 
ear of the maid and yet scape the eye of the father ; 
one that can win her to a meeting with you. Such 
things are managed daily. Howsoever hedged by 



70 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

husbands, or fenced by fathers, the fair ones of the 
city are still to be come at. Employ a go-between." 

" Have I not tried Gregory ? Where he has 
failed, how shall any other servant fare ? Not one 
of those at my command has a tithe of his wit. Nor 
has any of our sea-rogues." 

" Why, the look of being a gentleman s serving- 
man will damn any knave in the eye of a wary 
citizen, nowadays. And Gregory hath the face of 
a rascal besides. Employ none of that degree. As 
for our sea-rogues, we chose em witless, for our 
own advantage/ 

" Troth, you might serve me in this matter, 
Ermsby. You have the wit ; and you should find 
good pastime in it." 

" Faith, not I. I know the taste of prentice s 
cudgel. I ll tell you a tale ; twill warn you that, 
when love s path leads into the city, you d best see 
it made sure and smooth ere you tread it yourself. 
One day as I was going to the play in Blackfriars, 
my glance fell upon as handsome a piece of female 
citizenship as you ll meet any day twixt Fleet Street 
and the Tower. She saw me looking, and looked in 
turn ; and I resolved to let the play go hang, and 
follow her. She had with her an old woman and a 
prentice boy, and her look seemed to advise me not 
to accost her in their presence. So I walked behind 
her, smiling my sweetest each time she turned her 



MASTER JERNINGHAM S MADNESS. Jl 

head around. She led me into a grocer s shop in 
Bucklersbury. I could see by her manner there 
that she was at home ; there was no husband in 
sight, the shop being kept by two prentices. Here 
she forthwith sent the woman up-stairs, and turned 
as if she would attend upon me herself. Now, 
thought I, my happiness is soon to be assured ; and 
I was rejoicing within, for each time I had seen her 
face she had looked more lovely. Sooth, the ripe 
ness of those lips ! " 

" Well, well, what happened ? " 

" I went but to open the matter with a cpurteous 
kiss on the cheek ; but the more luscious fruit hung 
too near, so I stopped me at the lips instead, and 
stopped overlong there. She made pretence I 
swear twas pretence to push me away, and to be 
much angry and abused. But the zany prentices 
knew not this virtuous resistance was make-believe, 
and they ran at me as if I were some thief caught in 
the act. I met the first with a clout in the face, but 
they were stout knaves and made nothing of laying 
hands upon me. I shook them off, and then, being 
at the back of the shop, drew my sword to ensure 
my passage to the street. But that instant they 
raised the cry, &lt; Clubs ! and ran and got their own 
cudgels, and came menacing me again. While I 
was making play with my rapier, thinking to fright 
them off, all the prentices in Bucklersbury began to 



72 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

pour into the shop, shouting clubs and brandishing 
em at the same time. I saw there was naught to 
do but cut my way through by letting out the blood 
of any grocer s knave or pothecary s boy that should 
stand before me. But ere I had made two thrusts 
in earnest, my rapier was knocked from my hand by 
a club. A cloud of other clubs rained on my head, 
shoulders, and body. And so I cowered helpless, 
seeing nothing before me but the chance of being 
pounded to a jelly by the crowd." 

"And what miracle occurred?" 

" The wit of woman intervened. She that I had 
followed laid hold of some box or bag, and thrust 
her fingers in, and began flinging the contents by 
handfuls into the air. It was ground pepper. In a 
moment every man Jack in the shop was sneezing as 
if there were a prize for it. Such a shaking, and 
bending forward of bodies, and holding of noses, was 
never seen elsewhere. Every fellow was taken with 
a sneezing fit that lasted minutes, for the woman 
still threw the pepper about, regardless of the work 
it had done. Limp and half-blind as every rascal 
was, and busied with each new spasm coming on, 
they paid no more heed to me ; and so, sneezing like 
the rest, I pushed through unregarded to the street. 
I fled down Walbrook, and came not to an end of 
sneezing till I had taken boat at Dowgate wharf. I 
went home, then, and put my bruises to bed ; and 



MASTER JERNINGHAM S MADNESS. 73 

I know not how many days it was till I had done 
aching. Be thankful thou hast not fared in the 
goldsmith s shop e en worse than I fared in the 
grocer s ; for there is no pepper kept in goldsmith s 
shops." 

" I know not then what kind of emissary to send. 
As you say, a serving-man is too easily seen through. 
A gentleman will not risk the cudgel. I know a 
lawyer, a beggarly knave eager for any sort of 
questionable transaction." 

" Nay, he ll make a botch of it, as lawyers do of 
everything they set their hands to." 

" How if I tried a woman ? "Pis often done, I 
believe. As thieves are set to catch thieves, so set 
a woman " 

"Ay, women have zest for the business ; especially 
the tainted ones they joy to infect their sisters 
whose purity they secretly envy. They that have 
spots take comfort in company, as misery doth. 
Yet they will serve you ill ; for they ever bring 
entanglement on those they weave their plots for, 
as well as on those they weave against. City hus 
bands and fathers have grown wiser, too ; they ve 
learned to look for love-plots in their women s 
fellowship with other women. Unless you d risk 
some chance of failure with this maid " 

" By God, that I will not ! I must have a sure 
messenger." 



74 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

" I would mine own page yonder had the wit, 
that I might lend him. But when I choose a 
servant, tis rather for lack of wit in him ; else he 
might take it into his head to outwit his master. 
My boy there serves well enough to carry sonnets 
to court ladies ; but he would never do for your 
business. You say this goldsmith is watchful. 
Therefore, you want a man the most unlike the 
common go-betweens in such affairs ; a man that 
looks the last in the world to be chosen as love s 
ambassador." 

" Some venerable Puritan, perchance," said Jer- 
ningham, with the slight irony of one not quite 
convinced. 

"Ay, if one could be found needy enough to 
want your money ; but that s hopeless. We must 
seek a poor devil that hath a good wit and can 
act a part. If we had one such in our ship s com 
pany What, Gregory ! Have you been listening, 
knave ? " 

Sir Clement s break was caused by his per 
ceiving, upon suddenly turning around, that Jer- 
ningham s man stood near, with a suspicious cock 
of the head. This Gregory was just the fellow 
to steal up without noise ; he had long cultivated 
the silent footfall. He was a lean man of about 
thirty-five years ; a little bent, and with a long 
neck, so that his head always seemed hastening 



MASTER JERNINGHAM S MADNESS. ?$ 

before his body, which could never catch up. He 
had a small, sharp face, of an ashen complexion, 
and with fishy, greenish eyes ; his expression was 
that of cunning cloaked in calm impudence. 

"No offence, sirs," said he, glibly, stepping 
forward with bowed head. " I couldn t help hear 
ing a little. If I may say so, sirs, my master 
needn t yet look abroad for one to do his business. 
I think I have a shift or two still, if I may be 
so bold." 

" You may not be so bold, Gregory," said Jerning- 
ham. " Disguises are well enough in Spanish tales 
and stage plays ; but you d be caught, and all 
brought home to me and the bishop s ears. He 
could stay our ship at the last hour, an he had a 
mind to. Go to ; and do and speak when you are 
bid, not else." 

The serving-man stepped back, looking humiliated. 

" He s already green with jealousy of the man 
you shall employ," said Ermsby, with unkind amuse 
ment at the knave s discomfiture. 

"Ay, he s touchy that way. A faithful dog 
and bound to be so, for I know a thing or two 
that would hang him. But to reach this maid, I 
must have another Mercury. Where shall I find 
this witty poor rascal that is to cozen old Argus, 
her father, and get me access to her?" 

"Why, but for going to Deptford, we might seek 



76 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

him forthwith. The hour before dinner is the right 
time. But " 

"Then let us seek. There s no need we go to 
Deptford to-day. We cannot haste matters at the 
ship ; all s in good hands there. In God s name, 
come find me this fellow." 

" Bid Gregory hail a boat, then," said Ermsby ; 
and, after the servant had been sent ahead to the 
stairs on that errand, and Ermsby had motioned 
his own page to go thither, he continued : " We 
shall go to Paul s first, where we got so many of 
our shipmates ; there we shall have choice of half 
the penniless companions, starved wits, masterless 
men, cast soldiers, skulking debtors, and serviceable 
rascals in London. Of a surety, you can buy any 
service there ; there s truth in what the plays 
say." 

The two gentlemen, attended by Gregory and 
the page, were soon embarked in a wherry whose 
prow the watermen headed against the current, 
the destination being some distance up-stream on 
the opposite bank. 

" What of Meg Falkner ? " Ermsby said, suddenly, 
in a tone too low for the servants to hear. "Are 
you rid of her yet ? " 

Jerningham s brow turned darker by a shade. 

"That were as great a puzzle as to reach this 
goldsmith s wench," he replied. " I would have 



MASTER JERNINGHAM S MADNESS. JJ 

married her to Gregory ; it seemed no mean fate for 
a yeoman s daughter that had buried a brat ; but 
she d have none of that. I durs n t turn her out lest 
she make a noise that might come to the bishop. 
I m lucky she hath kept quiet, as it is." 

" She lives still at your country-house ? " 

" Ay ; where else to lodge her ? Rotten as it is, it 
does for that ; and that is the only use it hath done 
me this many a year. There s a cow or two for her 
maintaining, and some hens. And for company, 
there s old Jeremy that s half-blind. He can quiet 
her fears o nights, when the timbers creak and she 
thinks it is a ghost walking." 

" And what of the house when you are away on 
the voyage ? " 

" Troth, all may out then, I care not ! Let em 
sell the estate for the debts on it ; they ll find them 
selves losers, I trow. And Mistress Meg will be left 
in the lurch, poor white-face ! As for me, when the 
ship sails, I shall be quit of that plague." 

"Ay, but you ll be quit of this goldsmith s wench, 
too. Will your one sweet hour or so suffice, think 
you ? " 

The faintest smile came into Jerningham s face. 

" I will not prophesy," said he, softly. " But, as 
you well know, when we come to that island, if all 
goes well, I shall be in some sort a king there." 

" Certainly ; but what of that, touching this wench ? " 



78 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW, 

" Why, will not the island have room for a queen 
as well?" 

" Oho ! " quoth Ermsby, after a short silence. " So 
the wind blows that way in thy dreams ! " 

Presently they landed at Paul s Wharf, climbed to 
Thames Street, which was noisy with carts and drays, 
and went on up a narrow thoroughfare toward the 
great church. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE ART OF ROARING. 

" Damn me, I will be a roarer, or t shall cost me a fall." A mends for Ladies. 

ON the February morning when he rose from bed 
in the coal-house attached to the haunted dwelling 
in Foster Lane, Captain Ravenshaw waited about the 
yard for Moll Frith to return from her excursion of 
the night. When she appeared, he gave her back 
the key to the gate, and borrowed two angels from 
her. Armed with these, he bade her repent of her 
sins, and hastened to Cheapside, turning eastward 
with the purpose of finding out how and where his 
new friend, the scholar, fared in the hands of the 
law. 

Cheapside, which was in a double sense the Broad 
way of Elizabethan London, was already thronged 
with people going about their business, the shops 
and booths of the merchants being open, and the 
shopmen and prentices crying out their wares with 
the customary " What d ye lack ? " At the great 
conduit, the captain pushed his way through the 
crowd of jesting and quarrelling water-carriers who 
were filling their vessels, and washed his hands and 

79 



80 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

face. Looking about for a means of drying himself, 
while the water dripped from his features, he espied 
a woman with a pitcher, to whom the uncouth water- 
carriers would not give place. The captain knocked 
several of them aside, gallantly took the woman by 
the hand, led her to the fountain, and enabled her 
to fill her pitcher. While she was doing this, he, 
with courteous gestures, took her kerchief from her 
head and dried himself therewith ; after which he 
returned it with a bow so polite that, between her 
amazement and her sense of flattery, she could not 
find it in her to say a word against the proceeding. 

Going on his way refreshed, the captain suddenly 
met Master Holy day, who looked as unconcerned as 
if he had never been near a prison in his life. 

" What, lad, did not the watch take thee, then ? " 

" Yes, faith, and kept me all night in a cage, where 
I think I have turned foul inside with the smell of 
stale tobacco smoke. I am come but now from the 
justice s hall." 

"Man, you ve had a quick journey of it. By this 
light, you must have found money in those new 
clothes, and tickled the palm of a constable." 

" No ; the justice might have sent me back to the 
stinking hole, for all the money I had to give any 
body. When he asked me my name, I bethought 
me to reply, Sir Ralph Holyday ; which was no 
more than my right at Cambridge, when I became 



THE ART OF ROARING. 8 1 

a graduate there. But, seeing me in these clothes 
instead of in black, the justice thought the Sir was 
of knighthood, not of scholarship. And so he said 
he could make nothing out of the watchmen s stories, 
which agreed not. I then addressed him respect 
fully in Latin ; and, lest it might be seen that he 
did not understand me, he got rid of me forthwith." 

"We ll drink his health but not yet. While I 
have money to show, we ll bespeak lodgings, and so 
make sure of sleeping in-doors, for a week o nights, 
come what may. These clothes will get us curtseys 
and smiles from any hostess except them that 
have already lodged me." 

" Ay, we are fine enough above the waist, but our 
poor legs and feet are sorry company for our upper 
halves." 

" Why, we must see to that when we meet our 
four asses again. Meanwhile our cloaks will cover 
us to the knees, and if we carry our heads high 
enough, nobody will dare look scornful at our feet. 
Remember, we are gallants while these clothes last ; 
swaggering gallants, that give the wall to no man. 
And while we go seek lodgings, I ll tell thee how 
thou shalt earn thy share of these coxcombs wast- 
ings. Hast ever travelled abroad ? " 

"No," said the scholar, falling into the captain s 
stride as the pair went westward. 

" No matter. Thou hast read books of other 



82 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

countries, and heard travellers tell of foreign 
cities ? " 

" Yes ; I ve read and heard much ; and remem 
bered some of it." 

"Then bear in mind, you are a great traveller. 
Your gentleman that hath not been abroad is 
counted a poor thing among gallants. Now these 
four silken gulls have never been out of England, 
and they look sheepish whene er a travelled man 
talks of France or Italy in their company. They 
would give much to pass for travelled gallants ; to 
talk of French fashions and Italian vices without 
exposing their inexperience. You shall instruct em, 
so they may fool others as you fool them. I ll 
broach the matter softly, and in such a way that 
they shall see the value of it. Thus, while you fill 
em up with tales of the foreign cities you have seen, 
we shall eat and drink at their cost. And so we 
shall hold em when they be tired of the swaggering 
lessons I mean to give em." 

" Well, I will do my best. What I don t know, 
I will e en supply by invention. My stomach will 
inspire me, I trust." 

They took lodgings at the top of a house in St. 
Lawrence Lane, not far from its Cheapside end ; and 
passed the time in walking about the streets till near 
noon, when they went to dinner at an ordinary where 
long tables were crowded with men of different de- 



THE ART OF ROARING. 83 

grees, who dined abundantly and cheaply. The two 
companions finally repaired to the Windmill tavern, 
where they had to wait an hour before their young 
gentlemen appeared. 

The four were now sober, and showed hardly as 
much relish in meeting the captain as he might have 
wished. They cast somewhat rueful glances at the 
clothes they had given away in their vinous generos 
ity, and which they had now replaced with other 
articles suitable to their quality. They manifested 
no eagerness for lessons in swaggering, and seemed 
at first to have forgotten any understanding they 
may have formed with the captain in regard thereto. 

But Raven shaw was prepared for this apathy. 
He took the risk of inviting the gentlemen to drink, 
and with the air of an accustomed host he bowed 
them into the room to which a tapster directed him. 
He trusted they would be of different mood when 
the time to pay the score should come. 

A little drinking, and a few of the captain s tales, 
warmed them up to some enthusiasm for his society ; 
and in an hour he had them urging him to proceed 
straightway to their further education in the art of 
roaring. After some reluctance and some unwilling 
ness to believe that their proposal of the previous 
night had been serious, he was persuaded to consent. 
With the faintest grimace of triumph, for the eyes of 
Master Holyday alone, who smoked a pipe temper- 



84 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

ately by the fire, he rose and began by illustrating 
how your true bully should " take the wall " of any 
man about to pass him in the street. 

The arras-hung partition of the room served as a 
street wall. The captain started at one end, Master 
Dauncey at the other. When the two met at the 
middle, the instructor enacted an elaborate scene of 
disputing the right to pass next the wall and so avoid 
the mud of the mid-street. He showed how to plant 
the feet, how to look fierce, how to finger the sword- 
hilt, what gestures to make ; then what speeches to 
use, first of ironical courtesy, then of picturesque 
abuse, finally of daunting threat. Master Holy- 
day, looking on from the fireplace, was amazed to 
see how much art could be displayed in what had 
ever seemed to him quite a simple matter. The 
captain went through every possible stage short of 
sword-thrusts; but there he stopped, saying that 
roaring ended where real fighting began. 

" If your man has not given way by this time," said 
he, " and you think he may be your better with the 
weapons, the next thing is to come gracefully out 
of the quarrel, by some jest or other shift. This 
is what many swaggering boys do, out of fear. When 
I do it myself, tis because I would avoid bloodshed, 
or out of mercy to my antagonist. But tis, in any 
case, a most important thing in the art of swaggering ; 
I shall give examples of it in my next lesson." 



THE ART OF ROARING. 85 

He then caused the gallants, in pairs, to go 
through such a scene as he had enacted. They 
made a foolish, perfunctory business of it at first, 
though he schooled them at every moment in atti 
tude, gesture, or look, and supplied them with terms 
of revilement that made the scholar stare in admira 
tion, and sanguinary threats before which a timid 
man might well tremble in his shoes. 

It would not do to carry his pupils too far forward 
at a step ; he must keep them dependent upon him 
as long as possible. Nor was it safe to tire them 
with repetitions. So he put an end to the lesson in 
good time ; and then, to hold them for the rest of 
the day, he set forth the possibility of their learning 
to pass as men that had travelled abroad. Master 
Holyday, while modestly admitting the extent of his 
wanderings in foreign countries, showed some disin 
clination to the task of imparting the observations 
he had made. 

"For, look ye," quoth he, "I once had a gossip 
whom I was wont to tell of things I had seen abroad. 
Like yourselves, he had never crossed the narrow 
seas ; but by noting carefully my talk, he was able 
to make other people think he had travelled as far 
as I. There was one thing I had told him, which I 
had chanced to forget afterward. A dispute arose 
betwixt us one day, before company that knew not 
either of us well, touching certain customs in Venice. 



86 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

By my not mentioning the thing I had forgot, and 
by his parading it as a matter well known, which 
others in the company knew to be the case, I was 
made a laughing-stock, and he got reputation as a 
great traveller. And to this day he keeps that 
reputation, all at my expense." 

This ingenious speech brought the desired insist 
ence ; and that very afternoon was begun, at Ant 
werp, an imaginary journey through the chief cities 
of Europe, in which were seen many things more 
astonishing than any foreign traveller had ever 
observed before. 

It took several evenings to go through Flanders 
and France, and would have taken more, but that, 
after the gallants had satisfied their curiosity regard 
ing Paris, they were in haste to arrive in Italy as 
soon as might be. Italy was then the great play 
ground of English travellers ; the fashions came from 
there, so did the inspiration to art and literature ; 
the French got their cookery and their vices from 
Italy ; the English imported some of the vices, but 
not the cookery. 

While the scholar led his four charges from city 
to city by routes often unusual and sometimes impos 
sible, Captain Ravenshaw conducted them stage by 
stage toward proficiency in swaggering. He showed 
them how differently to bully their betters, their 
equals, their inferiors ; how to bully before company, 



THE ART OF ROARING. 87 

how without witnesses, how in the presence of ladies ; 
how to overbear in every situation, from a simple 
jostle in the street to a dispute about a woman ; how 
to meet a contradiction in argument, how to give and 
receive every degree of the lie, how to intimidate a 
winner out of the stakes at a gaming-table ; and 
finally how, when the opponent was not to be talked 
down, either to slip out of a fight or to carry one 
through. 

The progress of the four would-be bullies in 
their fireside travels, and their swaggering education, 
was accompanied by further improvement in the 
dress of their instructors. At last the soldier and 
his friend were able to go clad in breeches, stockings, 
shoes, shirts, ruffs, and gloves, quite worthy of the 
cloaks, doublets, and hats they had previously re 
ceived. The four young gentlemen were now eager 
to try their new accomplishments about the town. 
The captain postponed the test as long as he could ; 
but finally their impatience was so peremptory that 
he had to consent. 

Now the captain knew that if his four apes should 
make a failure of their first attempt at swaggering, 
his favour with them were swiftly ruined ; conversely, 
a success would warrant his demanding a substantial 
reward in money. Thus far his only payment, and 
Master Holyday s likewise, had been in the shape of 
dinners, suppers, tobacco, and clothes. The two had 



8 8 CAPTAIN RA VENSHA W. 

been compelled, from time to time, to put off pay 
ment for their lodgings, and to temporise with their 
laundress ; and now their hostess s face wore a more 
and more inquiring look each morning as they went 
out. Ravenshaw had, it was true, obtained a little 
coin in the card-playing and dicing, by means of 
which he had illustrated to his pupils the uses of 
roaring in those pastimes. But this amount, small 
enough, he decided to lay out in ensuring the de 
sired success of his coxcombs in their first bullying 
exhibition. 

He therefore made a sudden and secret excursion 
to the suburbs beyond Newgate. After searching 
the lower taverns and ale-houses about Holborn and 
Smithfield, he found, in a cookshop in Pye Corner, 
a man with whom he forthwith entered into negotia 
tion. This man was a burly, middle-aged fellow, 
with a broken nose, a scarred cheek, a sullen attitude, 
and a husky voice. While he talked, he frequently 
spat in the rushes that covered the floor ; and now 
and again he would finish a remark with the words, 
added without the least sense, " And that s the hell 
of it." He wore a dirty leather jerkin over other 
clothes, and his attire was little better than Raven- 
shaw s had been before his change of fortune. 

After some talk, Captain Ravenshaw handed over 
some money to this man, promised a further sum 
upon the issue of the business, received the bravo s 



THE ART OF ROARING. 89 

assurance that all should go well, and hastened 
back alone to meet his companions at the sign of 
the Windmill. 

It was evening when the party sallied forth, the 
four coxcombs as keen for riot as ever was a colt for 
kicking up heels in a field. They would have barred 
the street against the first comers, or sought a brawl 
in the first tavern, but that Raven shaw bade them 
save their mettle for adversaries worthy of their 
schooling. 

" I mean to pit ye gainst the first roarers of the 
suburbs," said he. "Nothing short of the kings of 
Turnbull Street shall suffice ye, lads. What think 
ye of Cutting Tom himself ? I know where he and 
his comrades take their supper nowadays. Save 
your breath for such ; an ye roar them down in 
their own haunts, it shall be heard of. Waste no 
wind upon citizens or spruce gallants. Strike high, 
win supremacy at the first trial, and you are made 
men." 

With such counsel he restrained them until he had 
led them through Smithfield to Cow Cross, near the 
town s edge. 

Like a bent arm, lying northwestward along the 
fields toward Clerkenwell, was the narrow lane of 
ramshackle houses called Turnbull Street. Leaving 
his followers, the captain went into one of these 
houses. He soon came back. 



9O CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

" Tis excellent," said he. " Cutting Tom and his 
friends are in the front room at the top o the stairs. 
They are feasting it with the hostess and some of 
her gossips. You four shall go up and claim the 
room by right of superior quality. Master Holyday 
and I will stay below in talk with the bar-boy so 
they sha n t know I m with you ; but if need be, call 
me." 

"Nay, we shall want no help," said Master May- 
lands ; but the quaver of his voice belied his show 
of confidence. 

" Tis well," replied Ravenshaw. "A rare thing 
to roar these braggarts from their own table, before 
the womankind of their own acquaintance ! Come." 

A minute later the four sparks, huddled close to 
gether, and with white faces, thrust themselves into 
an ill-plastered room where four villainous-looking 
fellows and as many painted women sat at table. 
These people suddenly ceased their loud talk and 
coarse laughter, and one of them, the broken-nosed 
rascal with whom Ravenshaw had that day conversed 
in the cook-shop demanded thunderously : 

" Death and furies ! Who the devil be these ? " 

" Your betters, bottle-ale rogue ! " cried Maylands, 
somewhat shrilly, and like an actor in a play. 

" Betters ! " bellowed the broken-nosed man, rising 
to his feet. " Plagues, curses, and damnations ! 
Does the dog live that says betters to me ? I am 



THE ART OF ROARING. 91 

called Cutting Tom, thou bubble ! Cutting Tom, 
and that s the hell of it ! " 

"An you be called Cutting Tom," replied May- 
lands, taking a little courage from the sound of his 
own voice, " tis plain you are called so for the cuts 
you have received, not given. The wounds in your 
dirty face come not from war, but from bottles 
thrown by hostesses you ve cheated. Out of this 
room, dog-face ! you and your scurvy crew. 
Twould take a forest of juniper to sweeten the place 
while you re in it. You are not fit for the presence 
of such handsome ladies." 

" A gentleman of spirit," whispered one of the 
ladies, audibly. 

" What, thou froth, thou vapour, thou fume ! " 
roared Cutting Tom. " Avaunt ! ere I stick you 
with my dagger and hang you up by the love-lock at 
a butcher s stall for veal." 

" Hence, thou slave," retorted Maylands, " thou 
pick-purse, thou horse-stealer, thou contamination, 
thou conglomeration of all plagues ! " 

" Thou bundle of refuse ! " put in Master Hawes. 

"Thou heap of mud! " added Master Dauncey. 

" Thou filth out of the street-ditch ! " cried Master 
Clarington. 

Meanwhile the women had scampered to the fire 
place for safety. Cutting Tom s three comrades had 
found their feet, and they now joined their voices to 



92 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

his in a chorus of abuse, defiance, and threat ; 
they beat the table fearsornely with their sheathed 
swords. In turn, the young gentlemen half-drew 
their blades and then pushed them violently back 
again, and trod angrily upon the rushes. Cutting 
Tom s party had all got to that side of the table 
farther from the door. The four intruders therefore 
advanced to the table, and with terrible words be 
laboured their adversaries across it. 

"A step more," cried Cutting Tom, banging his 
sword handle upon the table, " and I ll spit ye ! " 

"And roast ye after at the fire!" said one of his 
men. 

The gallants showed that they could rattle their 
hilts upon the innocent board as fiercely. 

" Out of the room," shouted Maylands, " ere we 
pin ye to the wall and set dogs on ye ! " 

This was but the beginning of the contest, which 
soon attained a scurrility too shocking, not for Eliza 
bethan ears, but for these pages. Meanwhile, Raven- 
shaw and Holyday waited below. At last a noise 
was heard in the passage above, and the four ill- 
favoured fellows came bounding down the stairs. 
Three of them left the house at once, but Cutting 
Tom, seeing that the gallants did not follow, stopped 
to whisper with the captain. 

" Twas good as a play," quoth he. "We held our 
own awhile, as you bade, Then we let em overbear 



THE ART OF ROARING. 93 

us, and at last we feigned such fear they said they d 
e en make us tie their shoes. They re tied already/ 
quoth I. Then untie em/ said they. We untied 
em ; and then they d have us depart a-crawling on 
our hands and knees ; and so we left em, on all 
fours ; and that s the hell of it ! I thought the 
women would have burst a-laughing." 

" Here s the rest of the money," said Ravenshaw, 
parting with his last coin. " Now vanish, and come 
not here again this night, or you ll have me to 
answer ! " 

Cutting Tom examined the money by the candle 
light, and went his way with a grunt. 

" So far, good," said Ravenshaw, chuckling. " Our 
young cocks will think themselves the prime swag 
gerers of Christendom." 

" Until they come upon the truth," said Holyday. 
"The next men they meet, they ll be for bullying; 
and then they re not like to come off as well." 

" But they shall meet no men this night. The 
ladies above will keep em here till they be too sleepy 
with wine for any desire of roaring. We ll see em 
safe home, and to-morrow at dinner I ll ply em for a 
fat remuneration. When that s in our pockets, they 
may learn the truth and go hang. We ll hire a page 
to attend us, and we ll live like gentlemen. We re 
lucky to have found em constant so long. Come ; 
we ll up to them, as if we happened in." 



94 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

" Nay, not I, where there be women." 

" Oh, plague, man, you ll not be long bashful afore 

these trollops ! " And he pulled the unwilling scholar 

after him by the arm. 



CHAPTER V. 

PENNILESS COMPANIONS. 

" I walk in great danger of small debts. I owe money to several hostesses." 
The Puritan. 

THE next day, after dinner, finding the four dupes 
as much puffed up with imagined valour as he had 
hoped, Ravenshaw put forward the matter of a fit 
reward. That they might more freely consider, he 
left them for half an hour, taking Holyday with 
him. 

" Troth," began Master Hawes, when the four 
were alone, " I think we have bestowed somewhat al 
ready upon these two. If they are pressed for money, 
why don t they pawn some of the clothes we ve given 
em ? " 

" They consider they must be well clad to go in 
our company," said Clarington. 

"If it comes to that," said Maylands, "we can 
dispense with em. We roared down this Cutting 
Tom and his Turnbull rangers, why should we be 
still beholden to this captain ? " 

"And we ve learned as much of t other one s 
travels as we re like to remember," added Dauncey. 

95 



96 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

" Let them go hang for any more gifts ! " said 
Maylands. 

" Will you tell them so ? " queried Hawes. 

" Faith, yes ! An we can roar down four Turn- 
bull rangers, can we not roar down this one captain ? 
He has taught us all he knows himself." 

" Yet I would not have him think us stingy," said 
Hawes, who, as he was stingy, was sensitive as to 
being thought so. 

"Why, look you," replied Maylands. "When they 
come back, I ll say we ll satisfy em, touching a gift 
of money, ere the day be done. Then, presently, 
we ll find some occasion in their talk for a quarrel. 
Thereupon, we ll roar em down, and so break with 
em." 

The occasion arrived when Master Holyday was in 
the midst of a wonderfully imagined tale of travel. 
He told how he had escaped from Barbary pirates in 
the Mediterranean, and swum ashore to the harbour 
of Fez! 

" What, man ? " broke in Master Clarington. 
" Fez is not on the seacoast." 

" Most certainly it is," said the scholar, imper- 
turbably. 

" Tis not. I had an uncle, a merchant adven 
turer, was there once. He had to journey far 
inland." 

" Oh, ay," said Holyday, a little staggered ; " the 



PENNILESS COMPANIONS. 97 

city of Fez is inland, but the country borders on 
the sea. Twas that I meant." 

" Nay, you spoke of the harbour ; you must have 
meant the city." 

" Tush, tush ! " put in Ravenshaw, anxious to keep 
up the scholar s credit. " He meant the country ; 
a fool could see that." 

" Ay, truly," said Master Maylands, " a fool ; but 
none else." 

" I ll thank you for better manners," said Raven 
shaw, sharply. 

" Manners, thou braggart ! " cried Maylands, seiz 
ing his opportunity. " Thou sponge, thou receptacle 
of cast clothing ! Talk you of manners ? " 

" What ! what ! what ! what ! " was all the 
answer the amazed captain could make for the 
moment. 

" Ay, manners, thou base, scurvy knave ; thou 
houseless parasite, thou resuscitated starveling ! 
thou and thy hungry scholar ! " put in Master Hawes. 

" Oho ! Tis thus ? Ye think to try my swag 
gering lessons against me ? " said the captain, spring 
ing to his feet. 

"Pish! You are no better than Cutting Tom," 
retorted Maylands. 

Ravenshaw s wrath knew no bounds. The four 
rebellious pupils and providers were on their feet, 
defiant and impudent. 



98 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

" You d raise your weak breath against me, would 
ye ? And you d finger your sword-hilts, would ye ? " 
he roared. " By this hand, ye shall draw them, too ! 
Draw, and fend your numbskulls gainst the whacks 
I ll give em ! Draw, and save your puny shoulders ! 
I scorn to use good steel against ye, dunces, lispers, 
puppies ! I ll rout ye with a spit ! " 

They had drawn swords at his word, thinking he 
would wield his rapier against them. But, as it was, 
they had an ill time enough to defend themselves 
against the spit he had seized from the fireplace. 
Nimbly he knocked aside their blades, violently he 
charged among them, swiftly he laid about him on 
pates and bodies ; so that in small time they fled, 
appalled and panic-stricken, not only from the room, 
but down the stairs. The captain did not take the 
trouble to follow them beyond the doorsill of the 
room. 

"Hang them, bubbles!" quoth he. "They shall 
come on their knees and lick my shoes, ere I ll take 
em back to favour again." 

But the scholar philosophically shrugged his 
shoulders. 

To make matters worse, as the two were about to 
leave the tavern, they were called upon to pay the 
score. Ravenshaw said the young gentlemen would 
pay, as usual. 

" Nay," said the hostess, " they went away cursing 



PENNILESS COMPANIONS. 99 

my tavern, and saying they would never come near 
it again. Twas you ordered, and I look to you to 
pay. Tis bad enough an you drive good customers 
from my house, and give it a bad name with your 
swaggering." 

" Peace, peace, sweetheart. We have no money 
to pay ; there s not a groat between us." 

"Then you have clothes to pawn. I ll have my 
money, or I ll enter an action. So look to t, or, by 
this light, ye ll find yourselves in prison, I swear 
to ye ! " 

The two unfortunates fled from her tongue, down 
the Old Jewry. It rains not but it pours ; and when 
they reached their lodgings in St. Lawrence Lane 
they were confronted by the woman of the house, 
whose distrust had been brought to a head by their 
absence the previous night. She must have her 
money ; let them go less bravely clad, and pay their 
honest debts, else they had best beware of sheriff s 
officers. 

When they were alone in their room, Holyday was 
for selling their fine clothes. 

" Never, never ! " said Ravenshaw. " If we cannot 
make our fortunes in fine clothes, how shall we do it 
in rags ? Though we go penniless, while we look 
gallant we shall be relied upon. Some enterprise 
will fall our way." 

The next morning they rose before their hostess, 



100 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

and took leave of her house without troubling her 
with farewells. They found new quarters in a shoe 
maker s house in St. Martin s-le-Grand, and avoided 
their old haunts for fear of arrest. 

The question of meals now grew difficult. Raven- 
shaw had become so well known that possible 
adversaries at the gaming-tables shunned him. What 
little credit he could still compass at ordinaries and 
taverns soon prepared the way for new threats 
of arrest. Sometimes the two companions contrived 
to eat once a day, sometimes once in two days. 
After a time, the captain agreed that Holyday might 
barter his clothes. The scholar speedily appeared 
in a suit of modest black, as if he were his gallant 
companion s secretary ; and for awhile the two 
feasted daily. But anon they were penniless again, 
and went hungry. The captain swore he would not 
part with his fine raiment ; though he should starve, 
it would be as a swaggering gallant still. 

No Lent was ever better kept than was the latter 
part of that year s Lent (though to no profit of the 
fishmongers) by those two undone men. Their 
cheeks became hollow, their bellies sank inward, 
they could feel their ribs when they passed their 
hands over their chests. They went feverish and 
gaunt, with parched mouths and griped stomachs. 
As hunger gnawed him, and the fear of sheriff s 
officers beset him at every corner, and hope grew 



PENNILESS COMPANIONS: it&gt;f 

feeble within him, the captain became subject to 
alternations of grim resignation and futile rage. 
The scholar starved with serenity, as became a 
master of the liberal arts, being visited in his sleep 
by dreams of glorious banquets, upon which in his 
waking hours he made sonnets. 

In May the patience of the shoemaker in St. Mar 
tin s-le-Grand was exhausted, and the two penniless 
men had other lodgings to seek. 

They spent much of their time now in St. Paul s 
Church. Here employment was like to offer, and 
here was comparative safety from arrest, certain parts 
of the church being held sanctuary for debtors. To 
St. Paul s, therefore, they went on the morning that 
found them again roofless ; keeping a lookout on the 
way thither for any sheriff s men who might with 
warrant be in quest of them. It was fortunate that 
none waylaid them, for the captain was in such 
mood that he would have gone near slaying any that 
had. Neither he nor Holyday had eaten for two 
days. 

They took their station against a pillar in the mid 
dle aisle of the great church, and watched with sharp 
eyes the many-coloured crowd of men, of every grade 
from silken gallants to burden-bearing porters, that 
passed up and down before them, making a ceaseless 
noise of footfalls and voices, and sometimes giving 
the pair scant room for their famished bodies. 



102 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

The St. Paul s of that time was larger than the 
present cathedral. It covered three and a half acres, 
and was proportionately lofty. Thanks to its great 
doors and wide aisles, it afforded a short way through 
for those foot-goers in whose route it lay, porters, 
labourers, and citizens going about their business. 
But its wide aisles served better still as a covered 
lounging-place for those on whose hands time hung 
heavy, gentlemen of fashion, men who lived by 
their wits, fellows who sought service, and the like. 
These were the true " Paul s walkers." It was a 
meeting-place, too, for those who had miscellaneous 
business to transact ; a great resort for the exchange 
of news, in a day when newspapers did not exist. 
Certain of the huge pillars supporting the groined 
arches of the roof were used to post advertising bills 
upon. The services, in which a very fine organ and 
other instruments were employed, were usually held 
in the choir only, and the crowd in the nave and 
transepts did not much disturb itself on account of 
them. The time of most resort was the hour before 
the midday dinner ; and it was then that Ravenshaw 
and Holyday took their stand before the pillar on 
this May morning. 

" There walks a poet that hath found a patron," 
said the scholar. " Yet tis ten to one the verses he 
is showing are no better than these sonnets in my 
breeches pocket here." 



PENNILESS COMPANIONS. 1 03 

" If you had a capon s leg or two in your breeches 
pocket it were more to the purpose," replied the 
captain. 

" Troth, my sonnets are full of capon s legs and 
all other things good to eat," sighed Holyday. " I ve 
conceived rare dishes lately ; I have writ of nothing 
else." 

" If we could but eat the dishes out of thy son 
nets!" muttered Ravenshaw. "How can you write 
sonnets while you are hungry ? " 

"Why, your born poet finds discomfort a spur. 
There was the prophet Jonas writ a sonnet in the 
whale s belly." 

" Faith, I d rather undertake to write one with a 
whale in my belly ! I feel room for a whale there. 
Who the devil comes here ? " 

It was none other than Master Maylands, and fol 
lowing him were Clarington, Dauncey, and Hawes, 
the four being attended by a footman and a page. 
These gallants, in coming down the aisle, had espied 
the captain before he had seen them. They had 
stopped and held a brief colloquy. 

" Pish ! who s afeard ? " Maylands had said. " He 
won t fight in the church." 

" And if he will," said Clarington, " we can scape 
in the crowd." 

" Hang him, hedgehog ! " said Dauncey. " I think 
the spirit has gone out of him, by his looks." 



IO4 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

"It makes me boil," said Hawes, "to see the 
dog dressed out like a gentleman in clothes of our 
giving." 

The gallants advanced, therefore, looking as super 
cilious and impudent as they could. 

" God save you, dog of war ! " said Maylands. 

" God lose you, pup of peace ! " replied the captain. 

" Faith, I had thought twas a warm day," said 
Maylands, "but for seeing you wear a heavy cloak. 
Or is it that you durs n t leave it home, lest it be 
seized in pawn for debt ? " 

" You are merry," quoth the captain, briefly ; for 
the gallant had mentioned the true reason. 

" It shows your regard for us," put in Hawes, 
"that you always wear our clothes, to avoid their 
being seized." 

" A finger-snap for your clothes ! " said the captain, 
his ire engendered by their daring to make so free of 
speech with him. 

" Nay, you value em more than that," said Clar- 
ington. "They re all you have." 

" Is it so ? " said the captain. 

"Ay," said Maylands, "you must needs wear our 
livery still, whether you will or no." 

" Your livery, curse ye ! " cried Ravenshaw, ob 
serving that some in the crowd had halted to see 
what game of banter was going on. " Why, mon 
keys, I ve worn these clothes about the town in hope 



PENNILESS COMPANIONS. 1 05 

of meeting ye, that I might give em back. Since 
I did ye the honour to take your gifts, I ve heard 
things of ye that make it a shame to have known ye. 
I ve sought ye everywhere ; but the fear of a beating 
has kept ye indoors. Now that I meet ye, for God s 
sake take back your gifts, and clear me of all behold 
ing to such vermin ! Your cloak, say you ? Yes, 
lap-dog, there s for you. I thank God I m free of 
it ! " Acting on the impulse which had come with 
the inspiration for his retort, and wrought up beyond 
all thought of expediency, he had flung the cloak in 
the astonished gallant s face. " This bonnet will bet 
ter fit an empty head," and he tossed his cap to 
Clarington. " Here s a doublet, too ; I ve long ached 
to be rid of it," he cried, divesting himself of that 
garment as fast as he could, to hurl it at the head 
of Master Hawes. "This ruff has choked me of 
late ; I pray you, hang yourself with it ; there ll be 
an ass the less. The shoes are yours, coney ; take 
em, and walk to hell in em ! " He threw them one 
after another at their former owner, and began draw 
ing off his stockings. " I ll be more careful in accept 
ing gifts hereafter ; a gift is a tie, and a man should 
make no tie with those he may come to hear foul re 
ports of. Your stockings, sir ! The breeches, nay, 
I must take them off at home, and send em to you 
later ; them and the shirt, and sundry linen and such, 
that are with the laundress. Take these gloves, 



IO6 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

though, and this handkerchief ; and you your hanger 
and scabbard, and the rest. Take em, I bid ye, 
or And now, whelps, you ve got what s yours. 
Thank God, the sword and dagger are my own ! My 
weapons may go naked while my body does. Vanish, 
with your gifts ! I scorn ye ! " 

His voice and looks were such that the four gen 
tlemen thought best to obey. Hastily entrusting the 
captain s cast raiment to the footman and page, who 
closely followed them, they pushed through the grin 
ning crowd that had witnessed the scene ; and the 
captain was left in his shirt and breeches, with his 
sword and dagger in his hands, to the amused gaze 
of the assembly, and the somewhat rueful contempla 
tion of Master Holy day. 



CHAPTER VI. 

REVENGE UPON WOMANKIND. 

" Get me access to th Lady Belvidere, 
But for a minute." Women Pleased. 

AMONG newcomers who at that moment pressed 
forward to see what was the matter, were Master 
Jerningham and Sir Clement Ermsby. Followed by 
Gregory and the page, they had but then entered 
the church upon the quest we know of. By standing 
upon their toes, they got a view of the half-naked 
man. At the same time they heard the name, 
"Roaring Ravenshaw," passed about. 

" Ravenshaw ? " said Ermsby to his friend. " So 
tis. And your very man." 

" What, for such an affair ? A swaggering cast 
soldier ? " 

"Ay, indeed. The last man in the world to be 
suspected in your particular case." 

" But can he compass it ? " 

" Trust these brawlers, these livers by their wits, 
for a thousand shifts. They get their bread by 
tricks." 

" But will he undertake it ? " 
107 



IO8 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

" For pay ? Look at him." 

" But he was her champion that night." 

"A mere show, to cross us. Should they know 
each other again, twill gain him her confidence the 
sooner. Go ; make use of his present need." 

" Shall you come with me ? " 

" He might remember me as his adversary that 
night. He saw you not well enough to recognise 
you. Better he shouldn t know you are my friend. 
I ll be gone, ere he see us together. Meet me at 
Horn s ordinary when you have done with him. To 
him straight." 

Beckoning his page, Sir Clement hastened from 
the church, while Jerningham, with Gregory at his 
heels, elbowed imperiously forward till he was face 
to face with the captain. Raven shaw had, in the 
meantime, been bandying jests with the crowd, 
though inwardly wondering what he should do 
next. 

" When a soldier of your ability comes to this 
plight," said Jerningham, in a courteous, kindly tone, 
" tis plain the fault s not so much his own as it is 
the world s." 

Ravenshaw gazed at the speaker; manifestly 
without recognition. 

" Sir," said the captain, " whatever faults the world 
hath done me, I dare yet put my dagger to the 
world s throat, and cry &lt; Deliver ! " 



REVENGE UPON WOMANKIND. IOQ 

" Still the swaggerer," quoth Jerningham, with 
his soft smile. 

" Ever the swaggerer," replied Ravenshaw. " Tis 
my policy. This craven world will give nothing out 
of love or pity ; twill give only out of fear ; and so 
I bully out of it a living." 

Jerningham went close to him, and spoke in 
tones not to be heard by the crowd, which pres 
ently, seeing that no more amusement was to 
be afforded, began to melt into the usual stream 
of saunterers. 

" I take it," said Jerningham, " you are as good at 
cozening as at bullying." 

" I am not such a coward as to deny it. There be 
some so tame, the fiend couldn t find it in his heart 
to bully them ; at the same time, their lack of wit 
must needs tempt me to cozen them." 

"You have a persuasive speech at will, too, I see." 

" Seest thou ? " 

" Look you : I could mend your fortunes if you 
could persuade, or cozen, or bully, to a certain end 
for me." 

" Prove you ll mend my fortunes, and I m your 
man," said the captain, jumping at the hope. 

Jerningham regarded him for a moment thought 
fully, then said : 

"Perhaps I d best prove it first, ere I tell you 
what service I require." 



1 1 CAPTAIN RA VENSHA W. 

" I care not what the service is. Anything that a 
man can do, I can do." 

"And will do?" 

"And will do if it be not too black. I ll not 
murder." 

" Oh, the business has no murder in it. Here s 
proof I ll mend your fortune all such proof that 
is in my purse, as you see. Meet me here after 
dinner, dressed so as not to draw everybody s eyes 
upon us as we talk. You shall hear then what the 
service is. And there shall be more pay when it is 
done." 

The captain took the money with unconcealed 
avidity, betraying his feelings by the readiness with 
which he promised good faith and promptitude. 
Seizing Holyday s arm, he then hastened off to 
Smithfield, reckless alike of the appearance he made 
in the streets, and of the risk of meeting sergeants. 
In the second-hand shops of Long Lane he remedied 
his nakedness at a price which left sufficient for his 
dinner and the scholar s at Mother Walker s three- 
halfpenny ordinary. When he reappeared in St. 
Paul s, which was now comparatively empty between 
hours of resort, he wore a suit of faded maroon with 
orange-tawny stockings and a brown felt hat. 

Meanwhile, Jerningham, glad to have committed 
the swaggerer to the business before the latter knew 
its nature, had told the news to Sir Clement at 



REVENGE UPON WOMANKIND. Ill 

dinner, and was already back in the church. The 
faithful Gregory still attended him, more disgruntled 
than ever, for he considered that he might have had 
some of the money his master had bestowed, and 
would yet bestow, upon this swaggering captain. 
Gregory regarded the captain blackly ; he viewed 
this new engagement as a thing most unnecessary, 
most injurious to himself ; and he found his wrath 
increase each time he looked upon the interloper. 
Jerningham bade him wait out of hearing, and 
beckoned the captain into a darkish corner of the 
church, whither Master Holy day did not follow. 

"Well," said Ravenshaw, with after-dinner jovi 
ality, " what s the business ? What is it you would 
have me bully, or cozen, or persuade for you ? " 

" In plain words, a certain wench s consent to 
a meeting," was the reply. 

" What the devil ! " cried the captain, aflame. 
" Do you take me for a ring-carrier ? " 

Jerningham was silent a moment ; then said : 

"I take you for no better and no worse than 
any disbanded soldier that lives upon his wits about 
the town here." 

" What others do, is not for me to be judged by. 
I am Ravenshaw." 

" I never heard any reason why Ravenshaw should 
be thought more tender of women than his comrades 
are." 



1 1 2 CAPTAIN RA VENSHA W. 

" Tender of women ! A plague on em ! I owe 
them nothing but injuries. Tis not that." 

"What is it, then, offends you ?" 

" Tis that you should think me a scurvy fellow that 
you dare affront with the offer of such an errand." 

" Why, tis no scurvy errand. I only ask you to 
persuade her to meet me. I would approach her my 
self, but I am suspected and cannot come at her 
without her connivance. I need one whom her peo 
ple have not marked, to speak to her for me. I take 
it you have the wit to reach her ear. I would have 
you carry her my praises, and vows, and solicitations 
for a meeting ; and describe me to her as you see 
me, as a liberal, well-inclined gentleman." 

"Ay, in short, you ask me to play the go- 
between." 

" Oh, pshaw, man ! stumble not at mere names." 

"The names for such business are none too 
sweet, in troth ! " 

" They are but names. And sweet names may be 
coined for it. Love s ambassador, Cupid s orator, 
heart s emissary, call yourself so, and the business 
becomes honourable." 

" Faith, I have long known things are odious or 
honourable in accordance with the names they re 
called by. But I am not for your business." 

"Why, you have no choice. You are bound to it 
by the clothes you wear, bought with my money " 



REVENGE UPON WOMANKIND. 113 

"I can e en doff these clothes, as I have doffed 
others," said the captain, though somewhat discon 
solately. 

"By the very dinner you have eaten," went on 
Jerningham. 

" I can scratch up the money to pay you for that." 

"And by the further service I intend for you. 
Beshrew me, man, you may find yourself nested for 
life if you keep my favour. No more nakedness and 
starvation." Jerningham, on the eve of his long 
voyage, could afford any promise ; besides, twas 
not impossible this redoubtable fellow might really 
be useful to him indefinitely, one way or another. 

Ravenshaw glared at him with the tortured look 
of a man sorely tempted. 

"Moreover," added Jerningham, "what profit can 
you have in any kind of virtue, when your reputation 
is so villainous ? " 

" Hang my reputation ! I ll not be taken for a 
love-messenger. I ll help no man to any woman." 

" You are an ass, then. For aught you know, my 
love may be honest enough." 

" If it were, you would go about it otherwise." 

" You know not the world, to say so. Does 
honest love always work openly ? Hath not every 
case its peculiar circumstances ? Because you fear, 
without known grounds, that you may be a means of 
harm to a wench, will you go hungry to-morrow ? 



1 1 4 CAPTAIN RA VENSHA W, 

You are fed now, but will you be fed then ? Troth, 
I ne er knew a craving stomach to have nice 
scruples." 

"Oh, faith, I know that want is an evil coun 
sellor." 

" Evil or not, it speaks so loud as to silence all 
others. Is it not so ? Come, captain, be not a fool. 
If I mean no harm to the girl, tis no harm in your 
bringing us together." 

" But if you do mean harm ? " 

" Can I do her harm against her will ? She shall 
name the place and time of meeting. Is it for grown 
men to be qualmish merely because a petticoat is 
concerned ? " 

" Petticoats to the devil ! I owe no kindness to 
women, I say. Twas a woman s wiles upon my 
father robbed me of my patrimony. Twas a 
woman s treason to my love poisoned my heart, 
deprived me of my friend, changed the course of my 
fortunes, and made me what I am. Calamities fall 
upon the whole she-tribe, say I ! " 

"Why, then, if at the worst chance I should be 
the cause of harm to this one, twould be so much 
amends to you on the part of the sex." 

A sudden baleful light gleamed in Ravenshaw s eyes. 

" By God, that were some revenge ! " he mut 
tered. " Who is the woman ? " 

"A goldsmith s daughter, in Cheapside." 



REVENGE UPON WOMANKIND. I 15 

"A goldsmith s daughter some vain minx, no 
doubt ; deserving no better fate, and desiring no 
better. As for the goldsmith they are cheaters 
all, these citizens that keep shops ; overcharges, 
falsifiers of accounts; they rob by ways that are 
most despicable because least dangerous. And they 
call me knave ! And their women, that flaunt in 
silks and jewels bought with their cheatings twas 
such a woman cozened me ! Twas such that made 
a rogue of me ; if I were e en to pay back my 
roguery upon such! I ll do it! By my faith, I ll 
do it ! I ll be your knave in this, your rascal ; I 
take it, a knave is better than a starveling, a rascal 
is choicer company than a famished man. And tis 
time I settled scores with the race of wenches ! 
Let s hear the full business." 

Jerningham set forth exactly the situation. He 
laid stress on his requirement that the meeting 
should occur within the next two days. But he 
said nothing of the projected voyage ; nor did he 
mention the circumstances in which he had first seen 
the girl. When he told her name and abode, he 
looked for any possible sign of recognition on the 
captain s part. But none came ; Ravenshaw had 
never learned who was the heroine of that February 
night s incident. 

When Jerningham took his departure, the captain 
strode over to where Holy day awaited him. 



1 1 6 CAPTAIN RA YENS HA W. 

"Rogue s work," said Ravenshaw ; "but a rogue 
am I, and there s an end. I must get access to a 
rich man s house, and to the private ear of a wench ; 
and move her to meet secretly a gentleman she 
knows not ; and all within two days. How is it to 
be done ? " 

" Is the rich man a gentleman of the true gentry, 
I mean or is he a citizen here, a man of trade ? " 
queried Holyday. " If a man of trade, the way to 
his house, or his anything, is to make him think 
there s money to be got out of you." 

" He is a goldsmith in Cheapside." 

"Why, then, let me see. There is a goldsmith 
lives there, somewhere, knows my father. They 
were friends together in their youth, in Kent. I 
haven t met him since I was a small lad ; but I 
might go to him as straight from my father ; and 
then introduce you as a country gentleman ; and so 
he might be got to commend you to the goldsmith 
you seek." 

" There s no time for roundabout ways. Yet your 
father s friend may serve us one way or another. 
What s his name?" 

"Thomas Etheridge. As I remember, my 
father " 

"What? Why, death of my life! tis my very 
goldsmith ; the one whose daughter I must have 
speech with. Faith, here s a miracle to help us 



REVENGE UPON WOMANKIND. I I/ 

of the devil s working, no doubt. This Etheridge 
knows not you are at odds with your father ? " 

" Tis hardly possible he should. I have never 
sought him since I came to town. He never would 
go back to Kent, and so he could not see my father. 
He has an elder brother lives near my father ; but 
twixt that brother and the goldsmith there was an 
old quarrel, which kept the goldsmith from coming 
to visit our part of the country ; twould keep the 
brothers from communicating, as well." 

" Have you means of assuring him you are your 
father s son ? Can he doubt ? " 

" He would believe me for my likeness to my 
mother. He knew her." 

" Then you shall carry him your father s good 
words this hour ; and you shall commend me to 
him as but I must change my looks first. I ll 
to the barber s, and cast my beard, all but a small 
wit-tuft under the lip ; and have my moustaches 
pointed toward the sky. This goldsmith may have 
seen Roaring Ravenshaw in his time ; I ll be another 
man then." 

"But the daughter it must be managed so I 
shall not have to meet her or any women o the 
family." 

" Oh, the devil, man ! if you be not introduced to 
the ladies, how shall your mere friend be ? But stay ; 
at best, will the friend be ? These citizens are wary 



I I 8 CAPTAIN RA VENSHA W. 

with their hospitality. The son of your father might 
be invited to the table, the son s friend bowed out 
with a cool God be wi ye, sir ! Tis all too round 
about still. Body o Jupiter, I have it ! He hath not 
seen you since you were a lad, say you ? " 

" Not since a day my water-spaniel bit him in the 
calf o the leg, the last time he came to see my father. 
I was twelve years old or so." 

" Good. I shall remember the water-spaniel ; and 
as we go to the barber s, you shall tell me other 
things I may recall to his mind ; things none but 
you and your father could have known." 

" Certainly ; but how shall these serve you ? " 

" Why, I have neither letters nor likeness, to bear 
out my word. But the barber shall make me look 
the right age ; and these old remembrances, with 
some further knowledge of matters at your home, and 
my assurance, all these shall make me pass with 
Master Etheridge as Ralph Holyday, son of his old 
friend ; and you need take no hand in the business 
- that is, if you ll allow this." 

"With all my heart," said Holyday, glad to escape 
the risk of meeting women. 



CHAPTER VII. 

MISTRESS MILLICENT. 

" Tis a pretty wench, a very pretty wench, nay, a very, very, very pretty wench." 

The Wise-woman of Hogsdon. 

THE house of Thomas Etheridge, goldsmith, was 
near facing the great gilt cross in Cheapside, the 
images around whose base especially that of the 
Virgin were chronically in a state of more or less 
defacement. A few doors east of Master Ether- 
idge s, and directly opposite the cross, was the 
western end of Goldsmith s Row, described by Stow 
as " the most beautiful frame of fair houses and shops 
that be within the walls of London, or elsewhere in 
England." It consisted of "ten fair dwelling-houses 
and fourteen shops, all in one frame, uniformly built 
four stories high, beautified toward the street with 
the Goldsmiths arms and the likeness of woodmen, 
. . . riding on monstrous beasts, all ... cast in lead, 
richly painted over and gilt." 

Master Etheridge s house, thrusting out an iron 
arm from which hung a blue-painted square board 
with a great gilt acorn, was quite as tall and "fair" 

119 



120 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

as any of the ten in the neighbouring "frame." 
It supper stories were bright with the many small 
panes of wide projecting windows. The shop, whose 
front was usually open to the street by day, occupied 
the full width, and a good part of the depth, of the 
ground floor. Behind the shop was a "gallery" or 
passage, with a private entrance from the side street, 
and with a stairway ; beyond this passage was the 
kitchen ; and over that, the dining-room, which 
looked down upon a back yard that was really a 
small garden. 

Upon the low plastered ceiling of the dining-room 
was moulded a curious design of golden acorns. The 
walls were hung with tapestry representing a chase 
of deer. The floor was covered with rushes, which 
crackled under the feet of the boys that waited upon 
the family at supper. 

Captain Ravenshaw, with face clean-shaven all but 
for the skilfully up-turned moustaches and the tiny 
lip-tuft, leaned back in his carven chair after a com 
forting draught of his host s canary, drew his foot 
away from the dog that was pretending to mistake 
it for a bone under the table, and thought how lucky 
were those who supped every day at the board of 
Thomas Ether idge. 

" Yes," said Master Etheridge, who was a man 
square -faced, square-bodied, hard-eyed, hard-voiced, 
looking and sounding as if he should deal rather in 



MISTRESS MILLICENT. 121 

iron than in the softer, sunnier metal, a man with a 
shrewd mouth and a keen glance ; but just now, for 
once, a little mellowed by the recollections of youth 
which his visitor had stirred ; " your father was ever 
a man to have his will or raise a storm else. He led 
your poor mother many a mad dance. Be thankful 
all husbands are not as obstinate as Frank Holyday, 
Jane." 

Jane, the goldsmith s wife, looked as if she could 
tell a tale or two of husband s obstinacy, that would 
match any to be told of the elder Holyday ; but she 
sweetly refrained. She was a plump, handsome 
woman, who filled her velvet bodice and white stom 
acher to the utmost on the safe side of bursting ; 
she was the complete housewife, precise about the 
proper starching of the ruffs and collars, nice in her 
dress, of an even temper, choosing serenity rather 
than supremacy. So she merely beamed the more 
placidly upon the visitor, and said : 

" I warrant this young gentleman will not copy his 
father in that. His looks show the making of a kind 
husband. I wish you joy, Master Holyday." 

For the pretended Holyday had told the gold 
smith in the shop that he was about to marry a 
young lady of Kent, wherefore he wished presently 
to buy plate and jewelry. This news had turned 
the cool reception of an uninvited caller into the 
cordial welcome of a possible customer. And, as it 



122 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

was a guarantee against his wooing the daughter of 
the house, for whom a man of the Holydays moder 
ate estate was no acceptable suitor, it had removed 
the paternal objection to his presence in the family 
circle. Hence the goldsmith had honoured the 
claims of hospitality, and invited his old friend s sup 
posed son to supper. 

On being introduced to the ladies, Ravenshaw 
had promptly recognised the maid of that February 
night. On her part, his voice had seemed to touch 
her memory distinctly, but the transformation wrought 
by the razor had puzzled her as to his face. At sup 
per, sitting opposite him in silence, she had listened 
alertly while he had continued deluding her father 
with anecdotes of the elder Holyday ; and she had 
shyly scrutinised his face. He had covertly noticed 
this. No doubt she was racking her brain in efforts 
to identify him. Why not enlighten her ? The 
knowledge that he was in the secret of her attempted 
flight would give him a power over her. So he had 
said, to her father : 

" Oh, pardon my forgetting, sir. I was wrong 
when I told you I had not been in London except in 
passing to Cambridge and back. I was here over 
night last February." At this he had brought his 
eyes to bear full on Mistress Millicent. " I was in 
this neighbourhood, too. But the hour was so late, 
I durs n t intrude on you. Indeed, no one was abroad 



MISTRESS MILLICENT. 123 

in the streets but roysterers, and brawlers, and run 
aways, and such." 

The girl s face had turned of a colour with her 
lips, her eyes had flashed complete recognition, had 
met his for an instant in a startled plea for silence, 
then had hid themselves under their long lashes. 
Ravenshaw, feeling as if he had struck a blow at 
something helpless, had glanced quickly at her 
parents. They had been busy with their knives and 
spoons, fingers and napkins, and had observed noth 
ing. 

Curiosity and fear, the captain had thought, would 
now make her grant, if not seek, a word with him 
alone. After that, he had not rested his look upon 
her again during the supper. He had met her father s 
eyes readily enough, and her mother s, and those of 
the ladies woman, the head shopman, and the other 
dependents at the lower part of the table, but not 
hers. 

For, of a truth, she was not the vain and affected 
hussy, or the stiff and supercilious minx, or the bold 
and impudent hoyden, he had expected to find as the 
only daughter of a purse-proud citizen. Every move 
ment of her slim young figure, encased in a close 
blue taffeta gown, seemed to express innocence and 
gentleness ; her oval face, rich in the colour of 
blushes, lips, and blue eyes, had a most ineffable 
softness ; even her hair, brown and fine, parting 



124 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

across her brow without too many waves, gave an 
impression of grace and tenderness ; and over her 
countenance, whose natural habit was one of kindly 
cheerfulness, there now lay something plaintive. 
Ravenshaw found it not easy to face her, knowing 
for what purpose he had lied himself into her 
presence. 

And now, the trenchers being nearly bare, and 
mouths having more leisure to talk than the vora 
cious custom of that day allowed them during meals, 
Master Etheridge was minded for further reminis 
cence of his old friend. 

"Ay, ay, many s the quart of wine we ve drunk 
together after supper, in my rash days. Your father 
would have all drink that were about him. Even 
his dogs he would make drunk. A great man for 
dogs. I mind me of a prick-eared cur he had, would 
drink sack with the best of us, and sit on a stool at 
table with us, and howl with us when we sang our 
ballads. And there was a terrier, too ; I have my 
reason not to forget him." 

" Yes," quoth Ravenshaw ; he bit you in the 
calf o the leg the last time you were at our house." 

" Nay, that was a water-spaniel did that," said the 
goldsmith. 

Ravenshaw remembered now that Holyday had 
said a water-spaniel ; but he thought it would appear 
the more natural if he should seem to be in this 



MISTRESS MILLICENT. 12$ 

point tricked by memory, as, in some detail or other, 
people often are. 

" Nay," said he, " I am sure it was the terrier ; I 
remember it as well " 

" Oh, no, never, never the terrier ; twas the 
water-spaniel, on my word. Why, I never see the 
spaniels diving for ducks in the ponds at Islington 
but I think of it." 

But Ravenshaw feigned to be unconvinced, and 
when, after some further talk, he yielded the point, 
it was as if merely out of courtesy. When the 
supper party rose from the table, the captain was 
for a pipe of tobacco, which he forthwith produced. 
But Master Etheridge said he was no tobacconist, 
and that the smoke made his lady ill. Ravenshaw 
replied that, by their leave, he would then take a 
turn or two, and a whiff or two, in the garden, whose 
beauty, observed by him from the window, invited 
closer acquaintance. Etheridge liked to hear his 
garden commended before his wife, as its implied 
sufficiency saved him the expense of a garden with 
a summer-house in the suburbs, which many a 
citizeness compelled her husband to possess. So 
he went cheerfully ahead to show the way. 

" When you return, you shall find us in the with 
drawing room, across the passage," said Mistress 
Etheridge. 

Ravenshaw bowed to the ladies ; in doing which, 



126 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

he met Mistress Millicent s eyes with a look that 
said as plainly as spoken words : " I have something 
for your ears." This intimation, in view of the cir 
cumstances of their former meeting, could not fail to 
engage her interest. 

The goldsmith led him down-stairs to the ground 
floor passage, whence a door opened to a narrow way 
running past the rear of the house to the little gar 
den. This comprised a square of green turf, in the 
centre of which was an apple-tree, now in blossom ; 
a walk led to and around this tree, and another walk 
enclosed the whole square. This latter walk was 
flanked on the outer side by rosemary and various 
shrubbery, banks of pinks and other flowers ; which 
screened the garden walls except where a gate gave 
entrance from Friday Street. The farther side of 
the garden was sheltered by a small arbour of vines ; 
beneath this was a bench, and another bench stood 
out upon the turf, so that one might sit either in sun 
or in shade. 

It was still daylight ; the regular household supper 
was taken early in those times, and English days are 
long in May. Yet an early star or two showed 
themselves in the clear sky. The scent of the pinks 
and apple-blossoms was in the air. 

"A sweet night toward," said the goldsmith, 
manifesting an inclination to remain with his guest 
in the garden. But this was what Ravenshaw did 



MISTRESS MI LUCENT. I2/ 

not desire. The captain, therefore, as soon as he 
had lighted his pipe, took Master Etheridge s arm 
so as to have the greater pretext for walking close to 
him, and blew such volumes of smoke in the poor 
man s direction that, for the sake of his eyes and 
nostrils, being no " tobacconist," he was soon glad 
to make excuse for returning into the house, and to 
hasten back, coughing and blinking. 

" If she is a woman," mused the captain, left alone, 
"she will come to hear what I may tell her. She 
has been on pins and needles. By this light, what 
a piece of chance ! that this maid should be that 
one ! What shall I say to her ? I must open upon 
the matter of that night. Tut, has she not yet 
observed I am alone here now ? Or has she not the 
freedom of the house ? or the wit to devise means of 
coming hither ? Well, I will give her the time of 
this pipeful. What a sweet evening ! " 

But the sweetness of the evening made him only 
sigh uneasily, and feel more out of sorts with him 
self. Several minutes passed, and he was thinking 
he might have to resort to some keen stroke of 
wit to get private speech with her, after all ; when 
suddenly she appeared, with ghostlike swiftness, at 
the corner where the passage along the kitchen 
wing gave into the garden. He was, at the moment, 
scarce ten feet from that spot. 

She was blushing and perturbed. She cast a 



128 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

look up at the dining-room window, then glanced 
at him, and, instantly dropping her eyes, sped over 
the turf to the farther side of the apple-tree. He 
quickly followed her ; and when, thereupon, they 
stood together, the tree screened them from the 
house. 

Without looking at him, and tremblingly plucking 
the apple-blossoms to hide her confusion, she said, 
quickly : 

" Sir, I thank you for what you did that night. 
You will not tell them, will you ? " 

He thought that, by promising unconditionally, 
he should lose a possible means of controlling her 
actions ; so he must, for the moment, evade. 

" Then they know not ? " he queried. 

" Nay ; I got in, and to my chamber, without 
waking any one." 

" And had you no further molestation in the 
streets ? One of those men tricked me, and fol 
lowed you. I learned it after." 

She looked at him with a little surprise. " Nay, 
I saw him not, nor heard him. I had no trouble. 
But you will not tell?" 

Her wide-open eyes, round and large and of the 
deepest blue, were turned straight upon his face, 
as if they meant to leave him not till they should 
have a direct answer. 

"Why mistress," he blundered, and then 




SIR, I THANK YOU FOR WHAT YOU DID THAT NIGHT. 



MISTRESS MILLICENT. I2Q 

dropped his own gaze to where he was beginning 
to scrape the gravel awkwardly with his shoe, 
" why need you ask ? Did I not protect your 
secret that night?" 

"Then why do you hesitate now ? " she demanded, 
with a sudden unconcealed mistrust. " Oh, Master 
Holy day, what is in your mind? Why have you 
drawn me hither to speak with you alone ? Why 
do you make a doubt of promising not to betray 
me? Come, sir, I have little time; they will soon 
be wondering where I am ; either promise me, or 
I myself will tell them, and then, by St. Anne, I 
care not " 

There was a threat of weeping in her voice and 
face, and Ravenshaw impulsively threw up his hand, 
and said : 

"Nay, fear not. I will not tell. I give my word." 

Trouble fled from her face, and a smile of grati 
tude made her appear doubly charming. 

Ravenshaw cleared his throat, without reason, 
and tried to meet her glance without seeing her, 
if that had been possible. 

"You are a happy maid," quoth he, settling down 
to a disagreeable business. " Tis proven that you 
may play the runaway for an hour or two, when 
you wish, and none be the wiser. There s many a 
maid would give her best gown thrice over, for 
that assurance." 



130 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

"Troth, it serves me nothing," she said, with a 
forlornness he could not understand. "An I were 
to play the runaway again, whither should I run ? " 

He thought for an instant of going into the 
mystery of her former desire to run away ; but 
he decided that, as time pressed, it were better 
to hold to the present design. 

"Whither, indeed?" quoth he. "Faith, London 
has no lack of pleasant bowers, where beauty may 
hear itself praised by the lips of love. Sure, you 
look as if I talked Greek to you. Certainly you 
are wont to hear yourself admired ? " 

" Oh ! " she murmured, at a loss, with a smile, and 
a blush of confusion. 

"Troth, now," said he; "confess you enjoy to be 
admired." 

"Oh, pray," she faltered, "talk not of such things. 
I know not how to answer." 

" Yet you take pleasure in hearing them ? Come, 
the truth, mistress. Faith, tis but a simple ques 
tion." 

" Oh why I do and I do not." 

"I warrant," quoth he, softly, "there would be no 
I do not, if the right gentleman spoke them." 
The captain s tone seemed lightly gay and banter 
ing ; but, though she knew it not, his throat was 
dry, and he was trembling from head to foot like 
a shivering terrier. 



MISTRESS MILLICENT. 13! 

"I am sure I know not," she answered, em- 
barrassedly, but still smiling. 

Put it to the test," he whispered, huskily. 
" Give him the occasion to speak one that adores 
you hear him utter your praises hear him vow 
his devotion give him the occasion." 

" Methinks you take the occasion now," said 
she. in a voice scarce above the rustle of the air 
among the leaves. 

" Nay heaven s light ! I mean not myself ! " he 
said, dismayed. 

" Why, wha ? What then ? What mean you ? " 

Her smile had fled in a breath, and in its place 
was a look of suddenly awakened horror that smote 
him like a whip s blow across the eyes. 

"Oh, nothing," he stammered. "I mean tis 
not myself that s worthy to praise you. I know not 
I am out of my wits forget " 

Just then a woman s voice was heard calling 
from the house, " Mistress Millicent, where art 
thou ? " 

" Tis Lettice, my mother s woman, whispered 
the girl, quickly. " I must in. I have come out for 
this bunch of apple-blossoms. Some other time 
we ll talk perhaps." 

Without another word she ran from the garden. 

The captain snapped his pipe in two, and flung 
the pieces to the ground ; then turned toward the 



I 3 2 CAPTAIN RA VENSHA W, 

evening sky, in which a numerous company of stars 
now twinkled, a face bitter with self-loathing. 

I am a beast," he hissed ; "a slave, a scavenger, 
a raker of rags , fit company for the dead curs in 
Houndsditch. Foh ! but. by God s light and by this 
hand, I swear - *- " 

He raised his hand toward the stars, and finished 
his oath, whatever it was, in thought, not in speech. 
Then, suddenly resuming his former mien, he turned 
and walked rapidly into the house. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

SIR PEREGRINE MEDWAY. 

" How the roses, 

That kept continual spring within her cheeks, 
Are withered with the old man s dull embraces ! " 

The Night-Walker. 

As the captain entered, he heard some little 
bustle, as of an arrival. In the lower passage, at the 
door leading to the kitchen, was a strange serving- 
man, already on terms of banter with the cook and 
maids. He was provided with a torch, as yet un- 
lighted ; evidently the guest he attended would stay 
till after dark. Ravenshaw climbed the narrow 
stairs to the withdrawing-room, of which the door 
was open. 

This was a fine large room, with an oaken ceiling 
and oaken panelling ; with veiled pictures and veiled 
statues in niches ; with solid chairs, carved chests 
and coffers, tables covered with rich Eastern " car 
pets ; " with a wide window bulging out over Cheap- 
side, and with a great, handsome chimneypiece. The 
floor was strewn with clean rushes. Some boughs 
burning in the fireplace gave forth a pleasant odour. 
A boy was lighting the candles in the sconces. 



I 34 CAPTAIN RA V ENS HA W. 

Ravenshaw s glance took in these details at the 
same moment in which it embraced the group of 
people in the room. The goldsmith and his wife 
stood beaming, and the woman Lettice looked on at 
a respectful distance, while in the centre of the room 
was Mistress Millicent in the grasp of a tall, lean 
old gentleman in gorgeous raiment, who very gal 
lantly kissed both her cheeks and then both her 
hands. 

" Sweet, sweet," this ancient gallant lisped to her, 
" I can see how thou hast pined. But all is well 
now ; I am with thee again ; my leg is mended. 
Thou wert not fated to lose thy Sir Peregrine for all 
the ramping horses in England. So cheerily, cheerily 
now. Smooth thy face ; I see how thou st grieved, 
and I love thee the better for it." 

Mistress Millicent certainly looked far from happy ; 
but her dejection at that moment seemed to proceed 
less from any past apprehension for the visitor s 
safety than from a present antipathy to his em 
braces. She was pale and red by turns, and she 
drew back from him with much relief the instant he 
released her. Her eyes met those of Ravenshaw, 
and she blushed exceedingly, and looked as if she 
would sink out of observation. 

"Come in, Master Holyday," said the goldsmith 
seeing the captain in the doorway. "Come in and 
be known to Sir Peregrine Medway. Master Holy- 



SIR PEREGRINE MED WAY. 135 

day s father is an old friend of mine, that was my 
neighbour in Kent." 

" Holyday, Holyday," repeated Sir Peregrine, with 
indifferent thoughtfulness, looking at the captain 
carelessly. " My first wife had a cousin that was a 
Holyday, or some such name, but not of Kent. Sir, 
I crave your better acquaintance," to which polite 
expression the old knight gave the lie by turning 
from the captain as if he dismissed him for ever 
from his consciousness, and offering his hand to 
Mistress Etheridge to lead her to a chair. 

" What withered reed of courtesy, what stockfish 
of gallantry, may this be ? " mused Ravenshaw, strid 
ing to a corner where he might sit unregarded. 

" You should have come hither straightway, bag 
and baggage," said Master Etheridge to the old fop. 
" What need was there to go to the inn first ? " 

" Need ? Oh, for shame, sir ! Would you have 
me seen in the clothes I travelled in ? Good lack, 
I trow not ! Thinkst thou we that live in Berkshire 
know not good manners ? " The knight spoke in 
pleasantry; it was clear he accounted himself the 
mirror of politeness. " What sayst thou, mother ? " 

" Oh, what you do is ever right, Sir Peregrine," 
replied Mistress Etheridge, placidly. But Raven 
shaw, in his corner, was almost startled into mirth at 
hearing the wrinkled old visitor address the youthful- 
looking matron as mother. What did it mean ? 



1 3 6 CAPTAIN RA VENSHA W. 

Sir Peregrine bowed, with his hand on his heart ; 
in which motion his eye fell upon a speck of some 
thing black upon the lower part of his stocking. 
Stooping further to remove it, and striving not to 
bend his knees in the action, he narrowly escaped 
overbalancing ; and came up red-faced and panting. 
Ravenshaw thought he detected in Mistress Milli- 
cent s face a flash of malicious pleasure at the old 
fellow s discomfiture. She had taken a seat by the 
chimneypiece, where she seemed to be nursing a 
kind of suppressed fury. 

The knight, after his moment of peril, dropped 
into a chair in rather a tottering fashion, and sat 
complacently regarding his own figure and attire. 

The figure was shrugged up, and as spare as that 
of Don Quixote a person, at that time, not yet 
known to the world. It was dressed in a suit of 
peach-colour satin, with slashes and openings over 
cloth of silver ; with wings, ribbons, and garters. 
His shoes were adorned with great rosettes ; a 
ribbon was tied in the love-lock hanging by his 
ear ; and a huge ruff compelled him to hold high 
a head naturally designed to sink low between his 
sharp shoulders. His face, a triangle with the fore 
head as base, was pallid and dried-up ; the eyes were 
small and streaky, the nose long and thin, the chin 
tipped with a little pointed beard, which, like the 
up-turned moustaches and the hair of the head, was 



SIR PEREGRINE MED WAY. 137 

dyed a reddish brown. On this countenance reposed 
a look of the utmost sufficiency, that of a person 
who takes himself seriously, and who never dreams 
that any one can doubt his greatness or his charms. 

From the subsequent talk, it became known to 
Ravenshaw that Sir Peregrine had, a few months 
before, been thrown by a horse on his estate in 
Berkshire, and had but now recovered fully from 
the effects. The knight described the accident with 
infinite detail, and with supreme concern for himself, 
repeating the same circumstances over and over 
again. He was equally particular and reiterative in 
his account of his slow recovery. His auditors, mak 
ing show of great attention and solicitude, punctuated 
his narrative with many yawns and frequent nod- 
dings ; but on and on he lisped and cackled. 

"Good lack," said he, "there was such coming 
and going of neighbours for news of how I did ! 
I never knew so much ado made in Berkshire ; faith, 
I lamented that I should be the cause on t, such 
disturbance of the public peace, and I a justice. 
And what with the ladies coming in dozens to nurse 
me ! troth, that they all might have a share on t, 
and none be offended, I must needs be watched of 
three at a time What, sweet ? " He was casting 
a roguish look at Mistress Millicent. " Art vexed ? 
Art cast down ? Good lack ! see how jealous it is ! 
Fie, fie, sweetheart ! Am I to blame if the ladies 



138 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

would flock around me? Comfort thyself; I am 
all thine." 

Mistress Millicent, despite her vexation, of which 
the cause was other than he assumed, could not 
help laughing outright. The captain began to see 
how matters stood. But old Sir Peregrine was un 
touched by her brief outburst of mirth, and con 
tinued to shake a finger of raillery at her. 

" Sweet, sweet, ye re all alike, all womankind. 
My first wife was so, and my second wife was so ; 
and now my third that is to be." 

The girl s face blazed like a poppy with fury, and 
her blue eyes flashed with rebellion. She looked 
all the more young, and fresh, and warm with life, 
for that ; and when Ravenshaw glanced from her 
to the colourless, shrivelled old knight from the 
humid rose in its first bloom, to the withered rush 
he felt for an instant a choking sickness of dis 
gust. But the girl s parents remained serenely 
callous, and the old coxcomb, with equal insensi 
bility, prattled on, putting it to the blame of nature 
that he should be, without intent, so much the 
desire of ladies and the jealousy of his wives past 
and to come. 

Meanwhile Mistress Etheridge, having silently left 
the room with the woman Lettice, returned alone, 
and begged Sir Peregrine to come and partake of 
a little supper. From the knight s alacrity in 



SIR PEREGRINE MED WAY. 139 

accepting, it was plain he had honoured the family 
doubly, first by tarrying to change his clothes 
for his call, and then by not tarrying to eat before 
coming to them, an additional honour that Mistress 
Etheridge had divined. With courtly bows and 
flourishes, he followed her toward the dining- 
chamber ; whither he was followed in turn, for 
politeness sake, by the goldsmith, who apologised 
to Ravenshaw for leaving him. 

Whatever were the captain s feelings, Mistress 
Millicent seemed glad, or at least relieved, to be 
alone with him. 

" I wish you joy of your coming marriage," said 
Ravenshaw, tentatively. 

" You would as well wish me joy of my death," 
she replied, with a mixture of anger and forlornness. 

He rose and walked over to the fireplace, near 
her. 

"Why, tis true," quoth he; "when the bride 
is young, the arms of an old husband are a grave." 

" Worse ! When one is dead in one s grave, one 
knows nothing ; but to be alive in those arms 
foh!" 

"Your good parents will have you take this hus 
band, I trow, whether you will or no?" 

" Yes ; and I shall love them the less for it," 
she replied, sadly. 

" Has a contract passed between you ? " 



I4O CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW* 

" Not on my part, I can swear to that ! Before 
Sir Peregrine went back to Berkshire the last time, 
they tried to have a betrothal before witnesses ; but 
I let fall both the ring he wished to force upon 
me and the ring I was to give him ; I would not 
open my lips either to speak, or to return his kiss ; 
I held my hand back, closed tight, and he had to 
take it of his own accord. And all this the wit 
nesses noted, for they laughed and spoke of it 
among themselves." 

" Is the wedding-day set ? " 

" It may be any day, now that Sir Peregrine is 
well and in London. No doubt they will get a 
license, to save thrice asking the banns. I hope 
I may die in my sleep ere the time comes ! " 

" Twere pity if that hope came true," said Raven- 
shaw, smiling. 

"I dare not hope for a better escape. I m not 
like to be favoured again as I was the other time 
Sir Peregrine was coming to town for the marriage. 
Then his horse threw him, and gave me a respite 
- but for only three months. Now he is well 
again, and safe and sound in London." 

" What, were you in this peril three months 
ago?" 

" Yes. Twas that which made me try to run 
away, the night you first saw me. The next day, 
instead of him, came news of his accident." 



SIR PEREGRINE MED WAY. 14 1 

" Whither would you have run ? " 

"To my Uncle Bartlemy s, in Kent. You know 
him of course; he lives near your father." 

" Oh, yes, yes, certainly," replied the supposed 
Holy day. 

" And you saw him that night ; at least, you told 
me the watch had let him go." 

" What, was that your Uncle Bartlemy ? the 
old gentleman you were to have met the man 
my friends and I rescued from the watch ! " 

" I knew not twas you had rescued him ; but 
twas he I went to meet at the Standard. Nay, 
then, if twas Uncle Bartlemy you rescued, you 
would have known him ! " 

" Oh, as for that," blundered Ravenshaw, realising 
how nearly he had betrayed himself, " no doubt twas 
your Uncle Bartlemy, now I think on t ; but I recog 
nised him not that night. For, look you, he took 
pains to keep unknown ; and all was darkness and 
haste ; and though we are neighbours, I see but little 
of him ; and he is the last man I should expect to 
meet in London abroad in the streets after curfew." 

" That is true enough," she said, with a smile ; 
"and I hope you will not play the telltale upon 
him. If his wife knew he had been to London, 
there would be an end of all peace. Sure, you 
must promise me not to tell ; for twas my pleading 
brought him to London." 



142 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

" Oh, trust me. I give my word. So he came 
to help you run away from being married to this 
old knight ? " 

"Yes. You know there s no love lost betwixt 
Uncle Bartlemy and my father. But mine uncle 
hath doted upon me from the first, the more, per 
chance, because he hath no child of his own. And 
I think he loves me doubly, for the quarrel he has 
with my father." 

" And so he had not the heart to refuse when you 
begged him to come and carry you away to his 
house," conjectured Ravenshaw. 

" Tis so. Twas the only way I could devise to 
escape the marriage. I thought, if all could be 
done by night, I might be concealed in mine uncle s 
house ; and even if my father should think of 
going there to seek me, he could be put off with 
denials." 

" But what would your uncle s wife have said to 
this ? " 

" Oh, Aunt Margaret is bitter against my father ; 
she would delight to hoodwink him. The only doubt 
was how mine uncle might come and take me, without 
her knowing of his visit to London. For, of a truth, 
she would never consent to his setting foot inside 
London town ; and there was no one else I dared 
trust to conduct me. And so we had it that Uncle 
Bartlemy should feign to go to Rochester, and then, 



SIX PEREGRINE MED WAY. 143 

on his way home, to have happened upon me in my 
flight." 

"And so your aunt be none the wiser? Well, 
such folly deserves to be cozened the folly of 
forbidding her husband coming to London." 

" Oh," replied Mistress Millicent, blushing a little 
as she smiled, "my dear aunt is, in truth, as jealous 
as Sir Peregrine would have us believe his wives 
were. There is a lady in London that Uncle Bart- 
lemy played servant to before he was married, and 
Aunt Margaret made him promise never to come 
within sight of the town." 

" I marvel how you laid your plans with him, with 
out discovery of your people or his." 

"There was a carrier s man that goes betwixt 
London and Rochester, who used to come courting 
one of our maids. We passed letters privately by 
means of him, till he fell out with the maid, and now 
comes hither no more. The last word I had of my 
uncle was after that night. He told me of his mis 
hap with the watch, and of his getting free though 
he said not how. And he vowed he must leave me 
to my fate, for he would never venture for me again 
as he had done. So I was left without hope. When 
I recognised you to-day as my preserver that night, 
and remembered that the Holydays were my uncle s 
neighbours, I thought mayhap you might have 
some message from him ; but, alas ! " 



144 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

"And that is why you followed me to the gar 
den ? " said the captain, carelessly, though inwardly 
he winced. 

"Ay. Your look seemed to promise but woe s 
me ! And yet you spoke of my running away 
again ? " 

" Oh, I talked wildly. I know not what possessed 
me. Some things I said must have been very strange." 

" Why, forsooth," said she, smiling again, and col 
ouring most sweetly, " they seemed not so strange at 
the time, for I had forgot you are to be married ; but 
now that I remember that Belike you imagined 
for a moment you were speaking to the lady you are 
to marry ? " 

" Belike that is so. But touching this marriage : 
what is to hinder your running away to your uncle s 
now, with a trusty person to conduct you ? " 

" My uncle, in his letter, said he washed his hands 
of my affairs. He counselled me to make the best 
of Sir Peregrine s estate ; he gave me warning he 
would not harbour me if I came to him." 

" A most loving uncle, truly ! " 

"Nay, his love had not altered. But what befell 
him in London that night gave him such a fright of 
meddling in the matter." 

" Perchance his warning was only to keep you from 
some rash flight. And, mayhap, now that his fears 
have passed away, he would receive you." 



SIR PEREGRINE MED WAY. 145 

" I know not. If I might try ! hush, they are 
coming back ! " 

Ravenshaw could hear Sir Peregrine s cracked 
voice in the passage ; but he ventured, quickly : 

" I d fain talk more of this alone with you. 
When ? " 

" When you will," she replied, hurriedly. " I know 
not your plans." 

" In your garden, then," he said at a hazard ; " to 
morrow at nightfall. Let the side gate be unlocked." 

" I ll try. But do not you fail." 

" Trust me ; and meanwhile, if they turn sudden in 
the matter, and resolve to have the marriage forth 
with, find shift to put it off, though you must e en 
fall ill to hinder it." 

" I ll vex myself into a fever, if need be ! " 

Ravenshaw was on his feet when the elder people 
came in ; he advanced toward them as if he had waited 
impatiently that he might take his leave. As for 
Mistress Millicent, at sight of Sir Peregrine her face 
took on at once the petulant, rebellious look it had 
worn at his departure ; no one would have supposed 
she had conversed during his absence. 

When the captain had dismissed himself, he looked 
back for a moment from the threshold. The limping 
old coxcomb, more than ever self-satisfied after his 
supper, was bestowing a loverlike caress upon Mis 
tress Millicent, who shrank from him as if she were 



146 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

a flower whose beauty might wither at his touch. 
With this vision before him, Ravenshaw was let out, 
by the side door, into Friday Street, and made his 
way eastward along Cheapside to meet the scholar 
by appointment among the evening idlers in the Pawn 
of the Exchange. He thought industriously, as he 
went. 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE PRAISE OF INNOCENCE. 

" He keeps his promise best that breaks with hell." The Widow. 

THE Royal Exchange, or Gresham s Bourse, 
formed an open quadrangle, where the merchants 
congregated by day, which was surrounded by a 
colonnade ; the roofed galleries over the colonnade 
made up the Pawn, where ladies and gentlemen 
walked and lounged in the evening, among bazaars 
and stalls. Naturally the uses of such a resort were 
not lost upon Captain Ravenshaw and Master Holy- 
day, who had reasons for knowing all places where a 
houseless man might keep warm or dry in bad 
weather without cost. When Ravenshaw entered, 
on this particular May evening, he found the Pawn 
crowded, and lighted in a manner brilliant for those 
days. The scholar was leaning, pensive, against a 
post. 

" God save you, man, why look you so disconso 
late ? Is it the sight of so many ladies ? " 

" No. I heed em not, when I am not asked to 
speak to em," replied Holyday, listlessly. "How 
fared you ? " 

H7 



148 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

" Oh, so so. The trick served. Faith, I e en 
began to think myself I was Master Holyday. But 
what s the matter ? " 

It was evident the captain did not wish to talk of 
his own affair. The scholar was not the man to 
poke his nose into other people s matters. But 
neither was he one to make any secret of his own 
concerns when questioned. 

" Oh, tis not much. I have been commissioned 
to write a play." 

" What ? " cried the captain, eagerly. " For which 
playhouse ? the Globe ? the Blackfriars ? the 
Fortune ? " 

" Nay," said the scholar, sedately ; " for Wat 
Stiles s puppet-show." 

" Oh ! well, is not that good news ? Is there 
not money in it ? Why should it make you down i 
the mouth ? " 

" Oh, tis not the writing of the play but I have 
no money to buy paper and ink, and no place to 
write in." 

"What, did the rascal showman give you no 
earnest money ?" 

" Yes ; but I forgot, and spent it for supper. I 
knew you would make shift to sup at the gold 
smith s." 

" Ay, marry, twould have gone hard else. Well, 
I am glad thou hast eaten. It saves our shifting for 



THE PRAISE OF INNOCENCE. 149 

thy supper. Troth, we shall come by ink and paper. 
The thing is now to find beds for the night. Would 
I had appointed to meet my gentleman this evening." 
But suddenly, at this, the captain s face lengthened. 

" When are you to meet him ? " 

"At ten to-morrow, in the Temple church," said 
the captain, dubiously. After a moment s silence, 
he added, "And to think that the fat of the land 
awaits you in Kent whenever you choose to take a 
wife to your father s house there ! Well, well, it 
must come to your getting the better of that mad 
bashfulness it must come to that in time." 

" Why," quoth Holyday, surprised, " have you not 
assured me that women are vipers ? " 

" Ay, most of them, indeed but not all ; not 
all." The captain spoke thoughtfully. 

"Well," said Holyday, after a pause, "I think I 
shall lodge in Cold Harbour first, ere I take one home 
to my father." Cold Harbour was a house in which 
vagabonds and debtors had sanctuary ; but the two 
friends had so far steered clear of it, the captain not 
liking the company or the management thereof. 

Leaving the Exchange, they found the streets alive 
with people ; not only had the fine weather brought 
out the citizens, but the town was full of countryfolk 
up for the Trinity law term. 

" Odslid," a rustic esquire was overheard by the 
captain to say to another, " I looked to lie at the 



150 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

Bell to-night, but not a bed s to be had there. Twill 
go hard if all the inns " 

" Excellent," whispered Ravenshaw to the scholar. 
" We shall sleep dry of the dews to-night else I m 
a simple parish ass. Come." 

They went at once to the sign of the Bell, where 
the captain applied, with an important air, for a 
chamber. On hearing that the house was full, he 
made a great ado, saying he and his friend wished to 
leave early in the morning in Hobson s wagon start 
ing from that inn ; being late risers by habit, they 
durst not trust themselves to sleep elsewhere, lest 
they miss the wagon. Finally, going into the inn 
yard, the captain stated his case to one of Hobson s 
men, and suggested that he and his companion might 
lie overnight in the tilt-wagon itself, so as to make 
sure of not being left behind in the morning. The 
carrier, glad to get two fares for the downward jour-- 
ney at a season when all the travel was up to town, 
thought the idea a good one. And so the two slept 
roomily that night on straw, well above ground, 
sheltered by the canvas cover of the huge wagon. 
In the morning, pretending they went for a bottle of 
wine, they did not return ; and the carrier, whipping 
up his horses at the end of a vain wait of fifteen 
minutes, was provided with a subject of thought 
which lasted all the way to Edmonton. 

Meanwhile, the captain and the scholar, postponing 



THE PRAISE OF INNOCENCE. 151 

their breakfast, whiled away the time till ten o clock. 
At that hour, having left his friend to loiter round 
Temple Bar, Ravenshaw stepped across the venerable 
threshold of the church of the Temple. 

This church, too, was a midday gathering-place, as 
was also Westminster Abbey. But ten o clock was 
too early for the crowd, and the captain found him 
self almost alone among the recumbent figures, in 
dark marble, of bygone knights of the Temple in full 
armour. Not even the lawyers, in any considerable 
number, had yet taken their places by the clustered 
Norman pillars at which they received clients. The 
gentleman whom Ravenshaw had come to meet, to 
report the outcome of his attempt with the gold 
smith s daughter, was not there. 

Master Jerningham, indeed, had cause to be late. 
He had cause also for his mind to be, if not upset, at 
least tumbled about. In the first place, though he 
did not try to resist it, he cursed his unreasonable 
passion for this girl, which took so much time and 
thought from his final preparations for the voyage on 
which he had set so heavy a stake. He had been 
compelled to leave many things to his companion 
gentlemen-adventurers, which he ought to have over 
seen himself. And even as matters were, he was 
not clear as to what he would be about, concerning 
the girl. Suppose he won her to a meeting, could 
such a passion as his be cooled in the few hours dur- 



152 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

ing which he might be with her before sailing ? Or 
should he indeed, as he had hinted to Sir Clement, 
set himself to carry her off on his voyage by persua 
sion or force ? He knew not ; events must decide ; 
only two things were certain he must behold her 
a yielding conquest in his arms ; and he must sail 
at the time set or as soon after as weather might 
permit. 

Upon leaving Ravenshaw in St. Paul s, the day 
before, he had gone to see a cunning man by whom 
his nativity had been cast with relation to the voy 
age. The astrologer had foretold an obstacle to be 
encountered at the last moment, and to be avoided 
only by great prudence. This had darkened Master 
Jerningham s thoughts for awhile, but he had for 
gotten it in the busy cares of the afternoon at Dept- 
ford, whither he had hastened to see the bestowal of 
stores upon the ship. He had already got his men 
down from London and Wapping, all taking part in 
the work, some living aboard, some at the inns ; so 
as to risk no desertions. He had returned late to 
Winchester House, passed a restless night, slept a 
little after daylight, and set forth in good time before 
ten for his appointment. 

Just as he was going down the water-stairs, a 
small craft shot in ahead of the boat his man Gregory 
had hailed ; a woman sprang up from the stern and, 
gaining the stairs with a fearless leap, stood facing 




" BADE HIS VISITOR BE SEATED UPON A STONE BENCH, AND 
FACED HER SULLENLY." 



THE PRAISE OF INNOCENCE. 153 

him. She was a tall, finely made, ruddy-faced crea 
ture, in her twenties, attired in the shabby remains 
of a country gentlewoman s gown, and wearing a 
high-crowned, narrow-brimmed hat. 

" Name of the fiend ! " muttered Master Jerning- 
ham, starting back in anger and confusion. " What 
the devil do you here ? " 

"Peace," said the woman, in a low voice. ".Have 
no fear. If your virtuous kinsman sees me, say I m 
old Jeremy s niece come to tell you what men he ll 
need for the farm work." Her voice befitted her 
tall and goodly figure, being rich and full ; the look 
upon her handsome countenance was one of mingled 
humiliation and scorn. 

" I am in haste," said Jerningham, in great 
vexation. 

" You must hear me first," she replied, resolutely. 

Jerningham, stifling his annoyance, motioned Greg 
ory to keep the waterman waiting ; then led the 
way up the stairs to the terrace, bade his visitor be 
seated upon a stone bench, and faced her sullenly. 

" Is this how you keep your promise ? " he said, 
rebukingly. 

" Oh, marry, I put you in no danger. I might 
have walked boldly to the doors and asked for you. 
But I lay off yonder in the boat till you came forth ; 
it put me to the more cost, but you are shielded." 

"Well, why in God s name have you come? " 



I 5 4 CAPTAIN RA VENSHA W. 

" Because you would not come to the Grange, and 
I must needs have speech with you. You forbade 
messages." 

"Then have speech with me, and make an end. 
But look you, Meg, I have no money. I have kept 
my word with you ; I have given you a home at the 
Grange; twas all I promised." 

"Tis all I ask. But the place must be a home, 
not a hell. Tis well enough by day, and I mind not 
the loneness troth, I m glad to hide my shame. 
But by night tis fearful, with none but old Jeremy 
for protection, and he so feeble and such a coward. 
You must send a man there, you must! a man 
that is able to use a sword and pistol, and not 
afraid." 

" Why, who would go so far from the highroad to 
rob such a rotten husk of a house ? " 

" Tis not robbers," she said, sinking her voice to 
a terrified whisper. " Tis ghosts, and witches." 

Jerningham laughed in derision of the idea. 

" I tell you it s true. I know what I say," she 
went on. " Spirits walk there every night ; there 
are such sounds ! " 

" Poh ! " he interrupted. " The creaking of the 
timbers; the moving of the casements in the wind; 
the flapping of the arras ; the gnawing and running 
of rats and mice." 

" Tis more than that. There be things I see; 



THE PRAISE OF INNOCENCE. 155 

forms that pass swiftly ; they appear for a moment, 
then melt away." 

" Tis in your dreams you see them." 

" I know when I am awake ; besides, often I see 
them when I am not abed." 

" They are the tricks of moonlight, then ; or of 
rays that steal in at cracks and crevices ; or they 
are the moving of arras and such in a faint breeze." 

"I know better. Think not to put me off so. 
I ll not stay there alone with old Jeremy. I cannot 
bear it such fright! Good God, what nights I ve 
passed ! " 

Jerningham quieted her with a gesture of caution, 
as he looked fearfully around to see if her excited 
manner was observed. 

"Then there are witches," she went on, more 
calmly. "They slink about the house and the garden 
in the shape of cats. Terrible noises they make at 
night." 

" Why, they are cats, like enough ; they seek the 
rats and mice. Troth, for horrible noises " 

" Nay, but I know better. T other evening Jeremy 
was late fetching home the cow from the field, and 
so when I had done milking twas near nightfall. 
As I was crossing the yard with the milk, what did 
I see but an old woman leaning on her stick, by the 
corner of the house. She was chewing and mum 
bling, and looking straight at me. I saw twas old 



156 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

Goody Banks, whom the whole countryside knows to 
be a witch." 

" Foh ! a poor crazy beldame, no doubt come to 
beg or steal a crust or a cup of milk." 

" I thought so too, at first, after I had got over the 
fright of seeing her for tis rare we ever see any 
one at the Grange. But as I was going to speak 
to her, she looked at me so evilly I remembered what 
the countryfolk say of her, and such a fright came 
over me again, I cried out, Avaunt in the name of 
Jesus ! and flung the pail of milk at her. I heard 
a kind of whisk, for I had closed my eyes as I 
threw, and when I opened them, there, instead of 
the old woman, stood a great cat, staring at me 
with the very same evil eyes ! So I knew she must 
be a witch turning into a cat before my very eyes !" 

" But your eyes were closed, you say." 

" Ay, she had bewitched me to close em, no doubt, 
so I might not see how she transformed herself." 

" Why, tis all clear. The whisk you heard was 
of the old woman s running away from the milk-pail. 
The cat had been there all the while, belike, but you 
had not seen it for the old woman." 

" I tell you I know what I saw," she replied, grow 
ing vehement again. " You need not think to fool 
me, and turn me off. Sith you have no other place 
for me to live, I am content to live at the Grange ; 
but you must send a man there to guard the place 



THE PRAISE OF INNOCENCE. 157 

against ghosts and witches. You must do it, a 
stout, strong man afraid of nothing ; no shivering old 
dotard like Jeremy, who durs n t stick his nose out of 
his bedclothes between dusk and daybreak. You 
promised to give me a home, and I to keep silent and 
unseen ; but a house of spirits and witches is no fit 
home, and so what becomes of our agreement ? So 
best send a man." 

" Why, if it be not possible ? " 

" Then I shall hold myself freed of my promise, 
and if you cannot make one place a home for me, you 
shall make another. I shall tell the bishop all that 
is between us oh, I shall get word to him, doubt it 
not ! and I know what so good a man will do. He 
will make you marry me, that is what he will ! My 
birth" 

"Oh, peace! I was jesting. I will send a man. 
Is that all?" 

" Ay, and little enough. There s much a man can 
do there, for the good of the place itself. Will you 
send him to-day ? " 

" Why, faith, if I can find him a man fit for the 
place, I mean. I have much to do to-day." 

" But I cannot endure another night there, with 
none but Jeremy in the house. You must send him 
to-day ; else I swear I will come " 

" Nay, give me a little time," pleaded Jerningham, 
thinking that if he could but hold her off with prom- 



I 5 8 CAPTAIN RA VENSHA W. 

ises for two days, her disclosure would matter little, as 
by that time he would be afloat unless weather 
should hinder the sailing. At this " unless," he 
frowned, and remembered the fortune-teller s predic 
tion. Without doubt, what Mistress Meg might do 
was the obstacle in the case. He entertained a mor 
bid fear of an impediment arising at the last moment. 
The woman was capable of keeping her threat ; and 
the bishop was capable of staying him at the very 
lifting of the anchor, capable even of having him pur 
sued and brought back as long as he was in home 
waters. Meg knew nothing of his voyage. He must 
keep that from her, as well as satisfy her in the matter 
of her request. The wise man had said that " pru 
dence " might avoid the obstacle ; Jerningham must 
deal prudently with her. " I will send a man next 
week," quoth he. 

" I will give you till to-morrow to find a fit man," 
she replied, resolutely. " To-night I can sit up with 
candles lit. But if your man be not there to-morrow 
at four o clock in the afternoon, I shall start for 
London ; if I come a-horseback I can be here by 
eight." 

Jerningham fetched a heavy sigh. He knew this 
woman, and when she meant what she said, and how 
impossible it was to move her on those occasions. 
He thought what a close player his adverse fiend 
was, to set the time of her possible revelation upon 



THE PRAISE OF INNOCENCE. 159 

the very eve of his departure. Durst he hazard 
some very probable hitch of her causing ? No ; that 
would not be "prudence." He must not only 
promise her ; he must also send the man. After all, 
that was no difficult matter ; once the master was 
safe away on the seas, destined to come back rich 
enough to defy bishop and all, or come back never 
at all, let the man look where he might for his wage. 
It was but palming off upon her the first ruffian to 
be hired, who might behave decently for a week 
or so. 

Jerningham s face lightened, therefore ; he gave 
his word, slipped the woman a coin to pay her boat 
man, saw her to the boat by which she had come, 
and then took his seat in the one awaiting him, and 
bade the waterman make haste to the Temple stairs. 

As he and Gregory walked into the Temple 
church, he did not immediately know the man who 
hastened up to meet him ; for the upturned mous 
taches, and the bareness of chin, except for the 
little tuft beneath the lip, gave the captain a some 
what spruce and gallant appearance, notwithstanding 
his plain attire. 

" God save you, sir. I thought you had changed 
your mind." 

" By my soul, sir oh, tis Ravenshaw ! Faith, tis 
you have changed your face. I was detained, against 
my will. Let s go behind that farthest pillar. Troth, 



l6o CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

this transformation He broke off and eyed the 
captain narrowly, with a sudden suspicion. 

"A man s face is his own," said Ravenshaw, 
bluffly. 

" One would think you had set yourself to charm 
the ladies." 

" Fear not. I have no designs upon the lady you 
wot of. And now let me speak plain words. When 
I undertook your business yesterday, twas left in 
doubt between us whether your desire of this maid 
meant honestly." 

" Slight, it shall remain in doubt, as far as your 
knowledge is concerned," replied Jerningham, quickly, 
nettled at the other s tone. 

" It was left in doubt, as far as speech went," 
continued Ravenshaw. " But there was little doubt 
in my mind. And yet I bound myself to the service 
because I was at war with womankind. I thought 
all women bad nay, in my true heart I knew 
better, but I lost sight of that knowledge, and chose 
to think them so." 

" Wherein does your opinion of the sex concern 
me ? " 

" But I was wrong," pursued the captain. " I 
have met one who proves they are not all bad. I 
were a fool, then, to hold myself at feud with the 
sex ; and the greater fool to pay back my grudge, if 
I must pay it, upon one that is innocent." 



THE PRAISE OF INNOCENCE. l6l 

" Why, thou recreant knave ! Do you mean you 
have failed in the business and would lay it to your 
virtue ? " 

" Softly, good sir ! I will tell you this : I can win 
the maid to meet you, if I will." 

" Then what the devil ? How much money ? 
Come to an end, that I may know whether to use 
you or " 

"I will win the maid to meet you if you will 
pledge yourself - 

" Go on ; what price ? " 

"If you will pledge yourself to make her your 
wife at the meeting, and acknowledge her openly as 
such." 

Jerningham stared for a moment in amazement. 
Then he gave a harsh laugh. 

" A rare jest, i faith ! The roaring captain, desir 
ing a city maid for his mistress, offers to get her a 
gentleman husband ! A shrewd captain ! Belike, 
a shrewd maid, rather ! " 

" By this hand, I ought to send you to hell ! But 
for her sake, I will rather explain. She seeks no 
husband. But I conceived you might be a fit man 
for such a maid. You are young and well-favoured, 
a fitter man than some that might be forced upon 
her. I thought a marriage with such a mate might 
save But to the point : if you love her, why not 
honestly ? And if honestly, why not in marriage ? 



1 62 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

You will behold few maids as beautiful, none more 
innocent. As to her portion, the marriage must 
needs be against her father s knowledge, by license 
and bond ; but when he finds his son is so likely a 
gentleman, I warrant " 

" Come, come, an end of this ; I am not to be 
coney-catched. Shall I meet the wench through 
your mediation, or shall I not ? " 

" You shall not. And I tell you this : she is not 
to be won to such a meeting as you are minded for ; 
not by the forms of gods, the treasures of kings, or 
the tongues of poets ! " 

Jerningham shrugged his shoulders. 

" It is the truth," said the captain. " Virtue beats 
in her heart, modesty courses with her blood, purity 
shines in her eyes, she is the mirror of innocence. 
Should you find means to try her, I swear to you 
the attempt would but mar her peace, and serve you 
nothing. Nay, even if that were not so, if there 
were a chance of your enticing her, black curses 
would fall upon the man by whose deed that stainless 
flower were smirched. Innocence robed in beauty 
there s too little of it walks the world, that 
gentlemen should take a hand in spoiling it!" 

" Man, you waste my time prating," said Jerning 
ham, who had been thinking swiftly, and imagining 
many possibilities, and hence saw reason for calm 
speaking. " I see you are stubborn against the 



THE PRAISE OF INNOCENCE. 163 

business I bespoke you for. When I want an orator 
to recommend me a wife, I may seek you. If I wish 
to hear sermons out of church, I can go to Paul s 
Cross any day." 

The two looked at each other searchingly. The 
captain sought to find why Jerningham, after his 
exceeding desire, should show but a momentary 
anger, and speedily turn indifferent. Had his desire 
melted at a single disappointment ? Perhaps ; but 
affairs would bear watching. On Jerningham s part, 
he was wondering what the other would really be at, 
concerning the maid ; what had passed between 
them, and how far the captain stood in the way of 
Jerningham s possessing her by such desperate means 
as might yet be used. If the man could only be 
kept unsuspecting, and got out of London for a few 
days ! Jerningham had a thought. 

" So let us say no more of this maid," he resumed, 
"and if you forget her as soon as I shall, she will be 
soon forgot. No doubt you remember I spoke of 
other employments I might have for you. Of course 
I meant if you served me well with the goldsmith s 
wench. You proved a frail staff to lean upon in 
that matter, but I perceive tis no fair test of you 
where a woman is in the case. So, as you are a man 
to my liking, I will try you in another business. By 
the foot of a soldier, it cuts my heart to see men of 
mettle hounded by ill fortune ! " 



164 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

So soft and urbane had Master Jerningham sud 
denly grown, so tender and courteous was his voice, 
so sweet a smile had transformed his melancholy 
face, that the captain was disarmed. All the gentle 
man in Ravenshaw seemed to be touched by the 
other s manner ; he would have felt graceless and 
churlish to resist. 

" If the business be one that goes less against my 
stomach, I will show my thanks in it," said he, in 
conciliated tones. 

" Tis a kind of stewardship over a little estate 
I have in Kent if you mind not going to the 
country." 

" Say on ! " quoth the captain, opening his eyes at 
the beneficent prospect. 

Master Jerningham depicted his small inheritance 
of neglected fields and crazy house in as favourable 
colours as he could safely use. The captain, dis 
sembling not his satisfaction, averred he could wear 
the gold chain of stewardship as well as another man. 
An agreement was struck upon the spot ; Jerning 
ham imparted the general details, and said he would 
have the necessary writings made, and full instruc 
tions drawn up, within a few days ; meanwhile, he 
desired the new steward to install himself in the 
house at once. 

" Marry, a bite and a sup, and I am ready," cried 
Ravenshaw, gaily ; then suddenly remembered his 



THE PRAISE OF INNOCENCE. 165 

promise to meet the goldsmith s daughter that even 
ing. " Nay, I forgot ; I have some affairs to settle. 
I cannot go before to-morrow." 

Jerningham, whose purpose had been so happily 
met by the captain s readiness, lost his gratified 
look. 

" Oh, a plague on your affairs ! You must go 
to-day," he said. 

Ravenshaw shook his head. " I cannot go till 
to-morrow, and there s an end on t ! " 

Jerningham sighed with suppressed vexation. He 
dared not urge lest he arouse suspicion. It was too 
late to back out of the bargain without betraying 
himself. Moreover, to get the captain away on the 
morrow was better than nothing. 

" Well, well ; look to your affairs, then. But go 
early to-morrow." 

Ravenshaw pondered a few moments. " I will 
start at noon, not before." 

"But you must be at the Grange by four o clock; 
I have given my word to the people there." 

" I can do so, setting forth at noon. Tis eighteen 
miles, you say. I will go by horse." 

" Slight, man, have you a horse ? " 

" No, but you will give me one or the means 
to buy one at Smithfield ; and then may I die in 
Newgate if I be not at your country-house at four 
o clock ! " 



1 66 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

After a little thought, Jerningham told him to call 
at a certain gate at Winchester House on the morrow 
at noon, where a horse would be in waiting ; he then 
handed him a gold angel and dismissed him to his 
affairs. 

The captain had no sooner strutted jauntily off 
than Jerningham quickly beckoned Gregory, and said 
earnestly : 

" Dog his footsteps. Lose not his track till he 
comes to me to-morrow ; and if he meets her Be 
gone ! you will lose him. Haste ! " 

The jealous lackey, raised to sudden joy by this 
congenial commission, glided away like a cat. 

" I will have her, gainst all the surly fathers and 
swaggering captains in London ; and gainst her own 
will, and fiends and angels, to boot ! " said Master 
Jerningham, in his heart. 

About the same moment, Ravenshaw was saying 
in his heart, as he trod the stones of Fleet Street : 

" Ere I leave London, I ll see her safe from the 
old man s hopes and the young man s devices. I ll 
pawn my brains, else ! " 



CHAPTER X. 
IN THE GOLDSMITH S GARDEN. 

" Rather than be yoked with this bridegroom is appointed me I would take up 
any husband almost upon any trust." Bartholomew Fair. 

RAVENSHAW found Master Holyday leaning back 
against a door-post, with the unconscious weariness 
of hunger, and listening with a mild interest to the 
oration of a quack doctor who had drawn a small 
crowd. 

"Come, heart," cried the captain, "the mounte 
bank will never cure thy empty stomach ; here s the 
remedy for that," and he showed his gold piece, and 
dragged the scholar to an ordinary. After dinner, 
they bought paper, ink, and pens, and took a lodging 
at the house of a horse-courser in Smithfield, a 
top-story room, with an open view of the horse 
markets backed by gabled buildings and the tower 
of St. Bartholomew s Church. 

Ravenshaw left the poet at work upon his puppet- 
play, of which the title was to be: "The Tragical 
Comical History of Paris and Helen ; otherwise the 
King a Cuckold ; being the Sweet Sinful Loves of 
the Trojan Gallant and the Fair Queen of Menelaus ; 

167 



1 68 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

with the Mad, Merry Humours of the Foul-mouthed 
Roaring Greek Soldier, Thersites." 

The captain whiled away the afternoon in the 
streets, where there were conjurers, jugglers, morris- 
dancers, monsters, and all manner of shows for the 
crowds of people in town for the law term. At 
evening he took home a supper from a cook s shop, 
and shared it with Holyday, who, being in the full 
flow of inspiration, continued writing with one hand 
while he ate from the other whatever the captain 
offered him ; the poet knowing not what food he 
took, and oft staring or grimacing as he sought for 
expression or felt the passion or mirth of what he 
wrote. Ravenshaw presently placed a lighted candle 
on the writer s deal table, and stole out to keep his 
tryst with the goldsmith s daughter. 

The day had gone eventfully at the goldsmith s 
house. In the morning Master Etheridge an 
nounced that he would give a supper, with dancing, 
that night, to show his pleasure at Sir Peregrine s 
recovery and arrival. This was an age when rich 
citizens missed no occasion for festivity. So there 
was much bustle of sending servants with invita 
tions, hiring a band of musicians, cooking meats and 
fowls and birds, making cakes and marchpane and 
pasties, and other doings. Millicent uttered no 
plaint or protest ; the time of pleadings and tears 
on her side, arguments and threats on her father s, 



IN THE GOLDSMITH S GARDEN. 169 

was past ; many and long had been the scenes 
between the two, such as were not uncommon in 
that age, and such as Shakespeare has represented 
in the brief passage between "Juliet" and her 
parents, and these had left the goldsmith firm as 
rock, Millicent weak and hopeless of resisting his 
will. 

As for Sir Peregrine, he had never thought it 
necessary to urge ; he took it for granted she adored 
him what lady had not ? and that in her heart 
she counted herself supremely blessed in being 
picked out for him. He attributed her aloofness 
and sulkiness, even her outbursts of spoken detesta 
tion, to shyness, girlish perverseness, sense of un- 
worthiness of the honour of his hand, and chiefly to 
jealousy of his former wives and present admirers. 
So he serenely ignored all signs of her feelings. 

She bore her part in the day s preparations, a little 
uneasy in mind lest the festivities might prevent her 
appointed meeting at nightfall. She could not help 
counting much upon this new acquaintance ; he 
seemed a man of such resource and ingenuity, and 
such willingness to deliver her, even though he was 
betrothed to another what a pity he was betrothed ! 
She checked herself, with a blush ; but all the same 
she had an intuition that the other woman would not 
be the best wife for him. 

So it befell that, as Ravenshaw approached the 



I/O CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

house at dark, he saw all the windows light, and 
from the open ones came forth the sounds of music, 
laughter, and gay voices. Nevertheless, he pushed 
gently at the Friday Street gate, which gave as he 
had hoped, and found himself alone in the garden. 
He softly closed the gate, went into the shadow of 
the apple-tree, and waited. 

With his eyes upon the place where she must 
appear in coming from the house, he listened to 
the music of a stately dance, the thin but elegant 
and spirit-like music of the time, produced on 
this occasion by violins, flutes, and shawms. When 
the strains died, they were soon followed by bursts 
of laughter from the open dining-room windows ; 
then, presently, in the moonlight, he saw the figure 
he awaited. With a golden caul upon her head, 
and wearing the long robe and train necessary to 
the majestic pavan which she had recently been 
dancing, she glided across the turf, and stopped 
before him. 

"You have come from great mirth," whispered 
the captain, looking toward the windows whence the 
laughter proceeded. 

" It enabled me to escape," she whispered in 
reply. " They are listening to the tales of one 
Master Vallance ; he has been telling of the roguer 
ies of a rascal named Ravenshaw, a disbanded cap 
tain that swaggers about the town." 



IN THE GOLDSMITH S GARDEN. I/T 

He stared at her, with open eyes and limp jaw ; in 
a vague way he remembered one Master Vallance 
as a gallant who had insulted him one night in the 
Windmill tavern, the night he first met Master Holy- 
day. Luckily, she did not notice his expression. 

" As for me," she finished, " I think no better 
of gentlemen like Master Vallance for knowing such 
foul knaves." 

" Ay, indeed," assented the captain. 

"They are holding these little revels in welcome 
to Sir Peregrine," she went on. " You might have 
been invited, but I heard my father say he forgot 
where you lodged, if you told him." 

" Tis better to be here, at your invitation." 

"Then I bid you welcome," she said, smiling, 
and holding out her hand. 

"Faith, a right courteous maid," said he, and 
took the least motion as if to touch the hand with 
his lips ; but thought what he was, and stood rigid. 
"Well, we must talk now of your 

" Good heaven ! Stand close behind the tree," 
she whispered. " Tis Sir Peregrine, come after me." 

Ravenshaw was instantly under cover. Sure 
enough, steps were shuffling along the sod, and 
a cracked old voice approached, saying : 

" What, what, sweet ? Wilt fly me still ? wilt be 
still peevish ? Nay, good lack, I perceive it now ; 
thou knew st I d follow ; thou wished to be alone with 



172 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

me, alone with thy chick. A pretty thought ; I ll 
kiss thee for it." 

Ravenshaw heard the smack of the old man s 
lips, and grated his teeth. She had stepped toward 
the knight, so as to meet him at a further distance 
from her secret visitor, of whom, manifestly, the old 
fellow s eyes had not caught a glimpse. 

What was she to do ? To send the interrupter 
back into the house upon a pretext was to be rid of 
him but a minute. She was not born to craft, or 
schooled in it ; but her situation of late had sharp 
ened her wits and altered her scruples. Ravenshaw, 
straining his ears, heard her say : 

" I am angry with you, Sir Peregrine, and that 
is why I came away." 

"What, angry, my bird, with thy faithfullest, 
ever-lovingest servant ? Be I to blame if Mistress 
Felton smiled so at me ? " 

" Oh, Mistress Felton ? let her smile, I care 
not. I am angry because of thy gift. A goodly 
gift enough, and more than I deserve ; but when 
you knew my heart was set upon the sapphire in 
your Italian bonnet " 

"Why, God s love, you never said you wished 
it ! Sure, how " 

" Never said, with my lips, no doubt. But have I 
not said with my eyes, gazing on it by the hour ? 
Troth, art grown so blind ? " 



IN THE GOLDSMITH S GARDEN. 

"Oh, good lack, say no more, sweet ! The sap 
phire is thine own ; I ll fetch it to-morrow." 

" Nay, but I wish it to-night, long for it to-night, 
must have it to-night ; else I shall hate it, and never 
desire it, and throw it to a coal-carrier when you 
fetch it ! " 

" God-a-mercy ! thou shalt have it to-night. Tis 
at mine inn ; I ll send one of my men straight 
way." 

" What, trust it to thy man ? Such a jewel, that 
I have set my heart on ? If he were to lose it, 
or be robbed of it, I should ne er " 

" Oh, fear not. Humphrey is to be trusted ; 
he hath served me fifty ah twenty year, come 
Michaelmas ; he ll fetch it safe." 

" Oh, well, then, if you fear to go alone for it after 
dark! if you choose not to make a lover s errand 
of it ! if you are too old, why, then " 

" Oh, tush, I ll go for it ! Too old ! ha, ha ! 
Thou rt a jesting chick, thou art. See how soon 
I shall fetch it." 

He strutted to the gate, and was gone. In 
a moment, Millicent was by Raven shaw s side ; 
neither of the two thinking to fasten the gate 
after the knight s departure. 

" I see we must be quick," said Ravenshaw. 
"Your only escape from this marriage is to run 
away from it. Your only refuge, you once thought, 



1/4 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

was your uncle s house. But now that seems closed 
to you." 

" I am not sure. My uncle wrote me so, when 
he was fresh from his mishap in London. But 
if he found me at his door, he might not have 
the heart to thrust me away." 

" No doubt ; but your father would seek you at 
your uncle s. You think you could be hid there ; 
but if your father is the man he seems, and your 
uncle is the man he seems, your father would soon 
have you out of hiding ; he would have the house 
down, else. Is it not so ? " 

" Perchance you are right ; alas ! " 

" Now there is a way whereby it may be possible 
for you to find refuge elsewhere ; or whereby you 
may e en go to your uncle s and defy your father 
when he comes after you." 

"In God s name, what is it ? " 

" Troth, have you ne er thought on t ? If you 
were already married but not to Sir Peregrine or 
any such kind of stockfish might not your husband 
take you to his own house ? or if he took you to 
your uncle s, what good were your father s claim 
upon you against your husband s ? " 

She looked at him timidly but sweetly, and trem 
bled a little. 

" What ? " quoth she, with pretended gaiety. "Es 
cape a husband by seeking a husband ?" 



IN THE GOLDSMITH S GARDEN. 175 

" By accepting, not seeking, one one less unfit- 
one that a maid might find to her liking." 

" Why, in good sooth I hope I am not a bold 
hussy for saying so but rather than be bound to 
that odious Sir Peregrine, I think I would choose 
blindfold any husband that offered ! And if he were, 
as you say, to my liking 

" I said he might be to the liking of some maids. 
Have you ever considered what manner of man your 
fancy might rest upon ? " 

He covered the seriousness of the question with 
a feigned merriment. She, too, wore a smile ; in 
her confusion, she fingered the low-hanging apple- 
blossoms, and avoided his eyes, but, watching him 
furtively, she noticed how familiarly his hand reposed 
on his sword-hilt ; ere she bethought herself, she an 
swered : 

" Oh, a man of good wit, a better wit than face, 
and yet a middling good face, too ; a man that could 
handle a rapier well yes, certainly a good sword- 
man ; and as for 

A voice was suddenly heard from the dining- 
room window aloft : 

" Millicent ! What do you in the garden, child ? 
Sure tis thy train I see on the grass. What dost 
thou behind the apple-tree ?" 

It was the girl s mother, Ravenshaw dared not 
look from behind the tree, but he knew the voice. 



1/6 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

" Say you are with Sir Peregrine," he whispered. 

With a trembling voice, she obeyed. 

" Oh ! " exclaimed Mistress Etheridge, satisfied ; 
but then, as with a suddenly engendered doubt, " I 
should have thought Sir Peregrine would speak for 
himself." 

"Oh, heaven!" whispered Millicent ; "she will 
send down to see." 

" Good lack, sweet mother ! " cried Ravenshaw, in 
well-nigh perfect imitation of Sir Peregrine s cracked 
voice, " may not young lovers steal away for a tender 
minute or so ? May not doves coo in a corner un 
seen ? Must sweethearts be called from a quiet 
bower, and made to show themselves, and to give 
answers ? " 

" Peace, peace, Sir Peregrine ! I am much to 
blame," replied Mistress Etheridge ; and went away 
from the window, as Millicent observed in peeping 
around the apple-tree. 

" Faith," whispered Ravenshaw, " lest we be over 
heard, I should speak love to you in his voice hence 
forth." 

" Nay, I d rather you spoke it in your own voice," 
said Millicent, ere she realised. 

Ravenshaw s heart bounded. 

" Slight, what fool s talk ! " she added, quickly, in 
chagrin. " I do indeed forget the other maid ! " 

" What other maid ? " he asked, off his guard. 



IN THE GOLDSMITH S GARDEN. 177 

"The maid you are to marry, of course." 

"Oh! faith, yes, I forgot her, too! he an 
swered, truly enough. 

"Fie, Master Holyday ! " she said, pride bidding 
her assume the mask of raillery. 

" Holyday, say you ? " called out an insolent, deri 
sive voice, at which both Ravenshaw and Millicent 
started in surprise, for it came from within the 
garden. A moment later, a head was thrust forth 
from the shubbery by the gate, the head of Mas 
ter Jerningham s man Gregory, who had patiently 
hounded Ravenshaw all afternoon and evening, and 
had slipped in when Sir Peregrine had left the gate 
unclosed. 

" Holyday, forsooth ! " he went on, instantly alive 
to the opportunity of serving his master by shatter 
ing the falsely won confidence he saw between the 
maid and Ravenshaw. " You are cozened, mistress. 
The man s name is not Holyday; tis Ravenshaw 
and a scurvy name he has made of it, too ! " 

Astonishment and mortification had held the cap 
tain motionless ; but now, with a sharp ejaculation, 
he flashed out his rapier, and ran for his exposer. 
But the cat-footed Gregory had as swiftly darted 
along between shrubbery and wall, and Ravenshaw, 
on reaching the place where he had appeared, had 
to stop and look about in vain for him. 

" What does he mean ? " demanded Millicent of 



1/8 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

the captain, whom she had followed. " Is your name 
Raven shaw ? " 

He felt that his wrathful movement against his 
accuser had confirmed the accusation ; moreover, 
there was that in her look which made it too re 
pugnant to deceive her longer. 

"I cannot deny it," he said, humbly. 

" What ! Not that Ravenshaw ? " 

"The one of whom you heard Master Vallance 
speak ? yes ! " 

Here Gregory s voice put in again from another 
part of the shrubbery : 

" Tis Ravenshaw, the roaring rascal, that calls 
himself captain, and lives by his wits and by blus 
tering." 

A slight sound told that this speech was followed 
by another prudent flight behind the shrubbery. 
Ravenshaw was minded to give chase and dig the 
fellow out at all cost, but was drawn from that in 
tention, and from all thought of the spy, by the look 
of horror, indignation, and loathing that had come 
over Millicent s face. He took a step toward her ; 
but, with a gesture of abhorrence, she ran from him 
across the garden. Knowing not what he would say 
or do in supplication, he went after her. 

" Not another step ! " she cried, turning upon him, 
and with the dignity of outraged trustfulness. "Go 
hence, villain, rascal, knave ! Go, or I will call my 



IN THE GOLDSMITH S GARDEN. 

father, to have his prentices throw you into the 
street ! Good God ! to think I should have trusted 
my secrets to such an ill-famed rogue ! I know not 
what your purpose was, but for once you shall fail 
in your cheateries. I d rather wed Sir Peregrine 
Medway thrice over than be beholden to 

At this instant, and as Ravenshaw stood shrinking 
in the fire of her contempt, the unseen Gregory, 
having seized his chance for a concealed dash from 
the garden, reached the gate, and ran plump into the 
arms of Sir Peregrine, who was returning with the 
sapphire. 

"Good lack, what the devil s this?" exclaimed 
the ancient knight, knocked out of breath ; and he 
pluckily caught Gregory by the neck, and forced 
him back into the garden. 

" Let him go," said Millicent, as the knight came 
forward in great amazement. " He is a knave, 
doubtless, but deserves well for unmasking this other 
knave." 

"What, why, tis Master Holyday ! " said Sir 
Peregrine, quite bewildered. " Call st thou him a 
knave ? And what dost thou here, Master Holy- 
day ? I knew not you were invited to the revels." 

" Tis no Master Holyday," said Millicent, " but 
one Captain Ravenshaw, whose name is a byword of 
the taverns ; this man has declared him, and he 
denies it not. What his designs were, in passing 



1 80 CAPTAIN RA VENSHA W. 

upon my father by the name of Holyday, I know 
not." 

" Good lack ! here s wonders and marvels ! And 
how comes he to be here to-night ? " 

Millicent hesitated. Ravenshaw spoke for the 
first time : 

" I came through that gate, which you were so 
careless as to leave open, Sir Peregrine ; I saw you 
go, as I stood without ; and what my purposes were, 
you may amuse yourself in guessing. Yonder knave, 
I perceive, followed me " 

At this, Gregory, not liking the captain s tone, 
suddenly jerked from the old knight s grasp, and 
bolted out through the gate. Ravenshaw could not 
immediately pursue him, for he had been thinking 
swiftly, and had something yet to say : 

" My designs being foiled, and to show that I am 
a man of pleasant humour, I will e en give you a 
word of good counsel. When you tell Master 
Etheridge how he was fooled in his friend, young 
Holyday, let him suppose you were here when I 
entered this garden ; for, look you, it will show ill in 
you to have left this lady alone, and the gate open ; 
and it will appear careless in her, not to have made 
sure the gate was fastened. It will seem brave in 
you, moreover, to have been here and put me to rout 
when that knave betrayed me." 

He paused, looking at Millicent to see whether 



IN THE GOLDSMITH S GARDEN. l8l 

she inwardly thanked him for saving the secret of 
her dealings with him ; but, though she seemed to 
breathe a little more freely, as if she realised her 
advantage in his suggestion, she exhibited nothing 
for him but contempt ; doubtless she supposed he 
had deeper motives for his advice, or that he was 
jesting. 

Receiving no reply from either her or Sir Pere 
grine, the captain, after waiting a moment, made a 
low bow, turned, and swaggered out through the 
gate. 

" No doubt tis wise to do as he counselled," fal 
tered Millicent, in a low tone, after Sir Peregrine 
had carefully closed the gate, and as he led her to 
the house. 

" Ay, so I think. I would not have your father 
know you were careless, sweet. Take the sapphire, 
chick, and give me a kiss for it." 

As she felt his arms around her, and his mous 
tache against her lip, and meditated that her last 
hope had proved worthless, she gave herself up as 
lost, and accounted herself rather a dead than a living 
person for the rest of her days. 

Meanwhile Captain Ravenshaw, after stumbling 
over the protruding feet of a figure that huddled 
drunkenlike in the next doorway, plunged rapidly 
on in search of Gregory ; dogged at a safe distance 
by the drunkenlike figure, which, on rising from the 



1 82 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

doorway, proved to be that of Gregory himself, firm 
upon shadowing his enemy until the latter s meeting 
with Jerningham next day. 

At last abandoning the quest, during which Milli- 
cent s whiplike words of dismissal lashed his heart all 
the while, Ravenshaw returned to a part of Friday 
Street where he could stand in solitude and see the 
light, and hear the sprightly music, that came from 
the goldsmith s windows. 

" Though you loathe me and cast me off," he 
whispered, looking toward the room in which she 
might be, "yet, against your knowledge, and against 
your will to be served by me, I will keep my promise, 
and save you ! You may fling me forth, but you 
cannot stop me from that ! Hope be with you in 
these revels, sweet ; and sleep lie soft upon your 
eyelids afterward. Good night ! " 

After a little time, he made up his mind what to 
do, and took himself off through Cheapside, the keen- 
eyed, silent-footed serving-man still upon his track. 



CHAPTER XL 

THE RASCAL EMPLOYS HIS WITS. 

" What shall I do? I can borrow no more of my credit : there s not any of my 
acquaintance, man or boy, but I have borrowed more or less of. I would I knew 
where to take a good purse." The London Prodigal. 

RAVENSHAW had not the slightest thought that 
he was being followed, or had been followed during 
the day. He had recognised Gregory as Jern ing- 
ham s attendant, but he supposed Jerningham had 
sent the man, for want of a better instrument, to 
attempt what Ravenshaw himself had withdrawn 
from, or perchance to carry a letter ; he thus ac 
counted for the serving-man s unexpected presence 
in the garden. 

He knew that the knave would not succeed, even 
if he tried it, in communicating with Mistress Milli- 
cent that night. But doubtless further efforts would 
be made soon, and, while he felt she was proof against 
any manifest overtures against her honour, he feared 
some cunning proposal which might have a false 
appearance of honesty, and to which, in her des 
perate desire to escape from Sir Peregrine, she 
might therefore give ear. Here was additional 
reason why he must work swiftly to place her out 

183 



1 84 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

of all danger, either on Jerningham s side or on 
Sir Peregrine s, if sufficient reason did not already 
exist in the fact that he had to leave London at 
noon the next day. The arrangement for his serv 
ing Master Jerningham in the country could not be 
at all affected by his passage with Jerningham s man 
in the garden. Gregory s action there must have 
been on the inspiration of the moment, and formed 
no cause of quarrel with Jerningham ; while Jerning 
ham, on learning that Ravenshaw had again visited 
the goldsmith s daughter, would be the more desirous 
to get him out of London. 

Walking out Cheapside, the captain gave final 
order to the plans he had been evolving all the 
afternoon. 

He first made search and question in sundry ale 
houses and such, about Pye Corner, for Cutting 
Tom ; whom at last he found in a room filled with 
tobacco smoke, where a number of suburb rascals 
and sightseeing rustics were at the moment watch 
ing a fantastic fellow dance to a comrade s pipe and 
tabour. From this innocent amusement, Cutting 
Tom was easily drawn into the privacy of a little 
garden attached to the place. 

" What cheer now ? " queried Tom. " Fighting 
to be done ? or coney-catching ? You know I m 
your man through sea-water and hell-fire, for a 
brace of angels or so." 



THE RASCAL EMPLOYS HIS WITS. 185 

"I have a small matter afoot to-morrow night," 
replied Ravenshaw, gruffly, "wherein I can employ 
a man like you, and three or four under him." 

"Troth!" said Tom, becoming consequential, "I 
have some affairs of my own to-morrow night, and 
that s the hell of it." 

" Then good night to you ! " 

" Oh, stay, captain ! I had some slight business ; 
but to serve you, captain " 

" You bottle-ale rogue, think not to cozen me 
into a higher price. Affairs of your own ! no 
more of that. Shall we deal, or no ? " 

" Oh, I am all yours, captain. For you, I would 
put myself out any day. Say on." 

"Then you are first to raise four stout fellows 
whom you can trust as you do your false dice or 
your right hand." 

" They are near. Trust me for em." 

" At sunset to-morrow, you and your men, all well 
armed, and furnished with lights, be in waiting before 
the White Horse tavern in Friday Street, that is 
to say, loitering in a manner not to make people in 
quisitive. There will come to you anon a young 
gentleman with a young woman. The gentleman 
is one you have seen. He was with me the night 
you turned tail to those counterfeit roaring boys." 

" I have seen him with you since, a lean, clerkly 
man." 



1 86 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

"Ay; and he and the maid will pass the White 
Horse tavern, as soon after sunset as may be. 
Now, be sure you mistake not the man, it may 
be nightfall ere they come." 

" Never fear. I am a man of darkness. Mine 
eyes are an old tom-cat s." 

"Without stopping them, you and your men will 
close around the couple as a guard, and accompany 
where the gentleman shall direct. If any pursue, 
or try to molest them, you are to defend, and help 
their flight, at all risks. But they are not like to 
be sought for till they are out of London. They 
will take to the water at Queenhithe, and you five 
with them, all in the same boat. And so down 
the river with the tide, how many miles I know 
not exactly, till you land, upon the Kentish side. 
The gentleman will give orders where." 

" This should be worth ten pound, at the least, so 
far," said Cutting Tom, musingly, as if to himself. 

" You will not get ten pounds at the most, and yet 
you will go farther," replied Ravenshaw, curtly. 
"After you are put ashore, will come your chief 
service, which is to protect my gentleman and maid 
to their destination inland. How far this journey 
will be, I am not sure, but twill be some walking, 
through woods and by lonely ways, and by night ; 
and you are to guard them against the dangers and 
fears of the way, that is all. When they come to 



THE RASCAL EMPLOYS HIS WITS. 187 

the place they are bound for, they will dismiss 
you, and you may fare home to London as you 
choose." 

" Why, beshrew my body ! tis an all-night busi 
ness, then." 

" It should be over something after midnight, if 
begun early and well sped ; I count not the time of 
your return to London. And look you : I am not 
to be named in the affair, that is of the first import. 
If the lady knew well, in short, I am not to be 
named. The lady is not to know of my hand in it ; 
if she did all would go wrong, and I should make 
you sorry." 

" I will remember. This should be worth, now, 
fifteen pound, at the smallest. I shall have to pay 
the men " 

" You can pay them a pound apiece, and have 
two pounds for yourself. That will be six pounds." 

" Oh, jest not, I pray you ! Ten pound and 
there s an end on t." 

After some discussion, they met each other at 
eight pounds. Then arose another question. 

" Since you are not to appear in the affair," said 
Cutting Tom, " and I know not the other gentleman 
save by sight, it behooves that you pay before we set 
forth." 

"Half ere you set forth," conceded the captain, 
knowing his man, " half when the work is done." 



1 88 CAPTAIN RA VENSHA W. 

"Then will the gentleman pay me the second half 
when we are at his destination ? " 

" No. He will have no money with him. I would 
not put you in temptation upon the journey, or after 
ward. Though I shall not appear in the matter, I 
shall pay." He thought for a moment. It was 
safest that Cutting Tom should know him alone as 
master, deal with him alone where gold was to be 
handled, and yet that he should not pay the first 
money till the last possible moment before leaving 
London. Finally he said : " For the first four 
pounds, thus : to-morrow, at fifteen minutes before 
noon, no later, be at the hither end of London 
Bridge ; I will meet you there and pay. For the 
other four pounds, thus : when the journey is fin 
ished, pass the rest of the night at the gentleman s 
destination, he shall find you room in some stable- 
loft, or such, and there I will come the next day 
with the gold, for I shall be in that neighbourhood." 

Cutting Tom grumbled a little ; but Ravenshaw, 
after applying to him a few terms designed to make 
him think no better of himself, threatened to employ 
another man, and so brought him to agreement. 
The details having been repeated for the sake of 
accuracy, the captain left the place, and Tom 
returned to his amusements. 

Ravenshaw s concern now was to raise the prom 
ised eight pounds and such other money as would be 



THE RASCAL EMPLOYS HIS WITS. 189 

required in the exploit. He must needs bestir him 
self. At this late hour there was not time for any 
elaborate enterprise. Some bold, shrewd stroke 
must serve him. But might he expect to perform 
such a wonder now, when he had not been able to 
perform one, even at the pressure of dire want, dur 
ing the past weeks ? Yes ; for he had the stimulus 
of a new motive ; and the very shortness of the time 
at his disposal would put an edge to his wit, and 
sharpen his sight to opportunities to which he would 
commonly be blind. 

The manifest thing to do first was to stake his few 
shillings at cards or dice. He entered the nearest 
dice-house ; but here he was well known and no 
player would engage with him. He went into an 
other place, where most of the gamesters were men 
from the country, whom a few hardened rooks of the 
town were fleecing. Here the captain got to work 
with the bones ; but, as the dice were true, he soon, 
to his consternation, lost his last sixpence. In a 
desperate desire of getting some silver back in order 
to try for better luck elsewhere, he raised a howl of 
having been cheated with loaded dice, and proceeded 
to roar terror into his opponent. But the latter, 
frightened out of his wits, took bodily flight, and, 
though Raven shaw pursued him out of the house, 
succeeded in losing himself in the darkness of Snow 
Hill. 



1 90 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW, 

What was the captain now to do ? For a moment 
he thought of taking his stand on Holborn bridge, 
and crying " Deliver ! " to the first belated person 
who might be supposed to carry a fat purse. But 
there would be danger in that course, danger to his 
purpose, and he dared not risk that purpose as he 
would risk his own neck. He bethought himself 
with bitterness that there was not a human being in 
London, or in the world, who would lend him half 
the needed sum, to save his soul. Nerved by the 
reflection, he strode forward and swaggered into a 
tavern on the north side of Holborn, the door of 
which had just opened to let out three hilarious inns- 
of-court men who came forth singing : 

" For three merry men, and three merry men, 
And three merry men we be." 

He looked in at each open chamber door, and 
listened at each closed one. Neither eating, nor 
drinking, nor smoking, nor the music of begging 
fiddlers, had any attraction for him this time. But 
at last he came to a large upper room wherein money 
was passing, for he could hear the rattle of dice and 
the soft chink of gold amidst the exclamations of 
men, the voices of women, and the scraping of a 
couple of violins. Without knocking, he boldly 
flung open the door, and entered. 

Candles were plentiful in the room, which was 



THE RASCAL EMPLOYS HIS WITS. 19 1 

hung with painted cloth. On a long table were 
the remains of a supper ; at one end of this table 
the cloth had been turned back, and three gentle 
men were throwing dice upon the bare oak. At the 
other part of the table sat two women, with painted 
cheeks and gorgeous gowns, and a fourth gentleman. 
Upon the window-seat were two vagabond-looking 
fellows a-fiddling. The women were dividing their 
attention between the gamesters and a lean grey 
hound, for which they would toss occasionally a bit of 
food into the air. Before each of the women there 
was a little pile of gold, to which her particular game 
ster would add or resort, as he won or lost. All this 
the captain took in with sharp eyes ere any one did 
him the honour to challenge his entrance with a look. 

" Oh, your pardon ! " quoth he, when at last these 
people showed a kind of careless, insolent surprise at 
his presence. " I thought to find friends here ; I 
have mistaken the room." But instead of withdraw 
ing he stepped forward, his glance playing between 
the dice and the gold. 

" Oh, Jesu ! " said one of the women, a great lazy 
blonde, with splendid eyes, and a slow voice ; " tis 
that swaggering filthy rascal Ravenshaw, with his 
beard cut off." 

" Tis Samson shorn of his strength, then ! " said 
the other woman, a little, Spanish-looking, brown 
beauty, who spoke in quick, shrill tones. She was 



I Q2 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

dressed in brown velvet and scarlet satin. One of 
her hands lay in the ardent clasp of a large gentle 
man, who, with his own free hand, held the dice-box. 
He was handsome and simple-looking, and he now 
broke into loud laughter at her jest. 

" Twould have needed a handsomer Delilah than 
any here, to do the shearing," said the captain, rudely. 
Having been a hater of women, he had been wont to 
treat this kind with caustic raillery. 

The large gallant roared at this, and said, " Faith, 
ladies, you brought that on yourselves ! " But 
one of the other two gamesters, a lean, fox-faced, 
eager-looking little man, he whose pile of winnings 
lay before the indolent blonde, frowned with resent 
ment on her behalf. First his frown was directed 
at Ravenshaw ; but, deeming it prudent to aim it 
elsewhere, he turned it upon the large gentleman, 
saying : 

"Your mirth is easily stirred, Master Burney." 

The brunette shot a look of anger at the speaker 
for the offensive tone he used toward her gallant. 
The blonde noticed this, and took the little gentle 
man s hand in hers, to show where her allegiance 
lay ; and then she drawled out, with a motion which 
might have come to a shrug of horror had she not 
been too lazy to finish it : 

" Oh, God ! I pity Delilah, the poor woman, if her 
Samson was such a bottle-ale rogue as this beast ! " 



THE RASCAL EMPLOYS HIS WITS. 193 

Master Burney laughed at this sally, and somewhat 
reinstated himself in the favour of the little gallant. 

Ravenshaw bowed low. " I salute your most 
keen, subtle, elegant, biting wit, Lady Greensleeves ! 
It cuts ; oh, it cuts ! " 

" Lady Greensleeves ! Ho, ho, ho ! " bawled 
Master Burney, and forthwith essayed to sing, with 
a tunelessness the worse for the opposition of the 
fiddlers, some lines of the familiar ballad : 

" Greenselves was all my joy, 
Greensleeves was my delight ; 
Greensleeves was my heart of gold, 
And who but Lady Greensleeves ? " 

The point of the nickname lay in the fact that the 
pink silk gown which encased the large, shapely figure 
of the lady a gown so cut as to reveal an ample 
surface of bust was fitted with sleeves of light 
green. 

" Christ ! what caterwauling ! " quoth Lady Green- 
sleeves, with a smile, not ill-naturedly. 

" Tis not as bad as his laughing, at worst," said 
her gallant. 

"What is amiss with his laughing ?" spoke up the 
brunette, pressing Master Burney s hand the more 
tightly. 

"Oh," replied the little gallant, "I find no fault 
that he laughs ; but tis the manner of his laugh. If 



194 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

he but laughed like a Christian, I should not mind. 
But he laughs like a like a " 

" Like a what ? " persisted the brunette, defiantly. 

" Like a pig," said Lady Greensleeves, placidly. 

The brunette s eyes flashed at the fair woman, but 
the latter s amiable, half-smiling look disarmed wrath, 
or seemed to put it in the wrong, and so for a 
moment nobody spoke. Meanwhile Ravenshaw had 
made these swift deductions : Here was one gentle 
man prone to laugh at anything ; there was another 
gentleman quick to take offence at that laughter if it 
was directed against his mistress ; neither gentleman 
was afraid of the other, but both were afraid of 
Ravenshaw, whose name gave him a fine isolation, 
making it as hard for him to find adversaries in fight 
as in gaming ; and each gentleman was adored by his 
lady. In a flash, the captain saw what might be made 
out of the situation. 

" How is it you knew who I was, Lady Green- 
sleeves ? " he asked. " I think, if I had ever met you, 
I should have remembered you." 

" Oh, lord ! I would not for a thousand pound rub 
against all the scurvy stuff that s in your memory ! 
I was in Paris Garden the day you killed the bear 
that got loose among the people, and that is how I 
learned who you were. And oft since then I have 
seen you hanging about tavern doors, as I have gone 
about the town in my coach. I think I have seen 



THE RASCAL EMPLOYS HIS WITS. 

you at prison windows, hanging down a box for 
pennies, but I m not sure." 

This time Master Burney s laugh was upon the 
captain, and all joined in it. 

"No doubt," said Ravenshaw ; "and I think you 
once put a penny in the box, but when I drew it 
up I found it was a bad one." 

"Troth, then," she said, "here s a good coin to 
make up for it." And she took up the smallest piece 
of gold from the pile in front of her, and threw it 
toward him. " Take it, and buy stale prunes to keep 
up your stale valour ! " 

"Nay," he retorted, throwing it back; "keep it, 
and buy stale paint to keep up your stale beauty ! " 

Master Burney s shout of mirth was cut short by a 
curse, and a slap in the face, both from Lady Green- 
sleeves s lover, who had leaped to his feet and was 
the picture of fury. The struck man, with a loud 
roar of anger, sprang up instantly ; and both had 
their rapiers in hand in a moment. 

The two other gentlemen and the brunette rushed 
in to keep the angry gallants asunder ; Lady Green- 
sleeves sat like one helpless, and began to scream like 
a frightened child ; the fiddlers broke off their tune 
of a sudden ; the hound fled to the empty fireplace, 
and barked. The two opponents struggled fiercely 
to shake off the would-be peacemakers, and were for 
killing each other straightway. 



IQ CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

" Gentlemen, gentlemen," shouted Ravenshaw 
above the tumult ; " not before ladies ! not indoors ! 
There be the fields behind the tavern, and a good 
moonlight." 

With this, he caught the brunette by the wrists, 
and drew her from the fray. Holding her with his left 
arm, he pushed Master Burney s enemy violently 
toward the door. 

" To the fields, then ! " cried the little gentleman. 
" To the fields an he dare follow ! " 

Master Burney s reply was drowned by the cries 
of the ladies, as he dashed after the other. The two 
neutral gentlemen, yielding to the trend of the inci 
dent, accompanied the angry ones forth. The captain, 
instead of following, slammed the door after them, 
released the brunette, and stood with his back to the 
closed door to stop any one else from leaving the 
room. The brunette, shrieking threats, tried again 
and again to pass him, but he pushed her back each 
time until she sank exhausted on a chair by the table ; 
and all the while poor Lady Greensleeves wailed as 
if her heart would break. 

" Tis not for ladies to interfere in these matters," 
said Ravenshaw, when he could make himself heard. 
" A blow has been struck, and men of honour have 
but one course. Their friends will see all fitly done. 
Despair not, mistress : your gallant has great vantage 
in size and strength." 



THE RASCAL EMPLOYS HIS WITS. 197 

" Then you think he will win ? " cried the brunette. 
" Heaven be praised ! " 

" Oh, God ! oh, God ! " moaned Lady Green- 
sleeves. "Then my dear servant is a dead man. 
Woe s me ! woe s me ! I ll turn nun ; nay, I ll take 
poison, that I will ! " 

"Why, madam," said Ravenshaw, "your gentle 
man will acquit himself well, be sure of it. He is so 
quick ; and the other s bulk is in your man s favour." 

It was now the brown beauty s turn to be dis 
mayed. 

" Oh, thank heaven ! " cried Lady Green sleeves, 
smiling gratefully through her tears. " Yes, indeed, 
he is quick ; he will give that big Burney a dozen 
thrusts ere the great fellow can move." 

At this the dark woman started up for another 
struggle with Ravenshaw, but he stayed her with 
the words : 

" Nay, the small gentleman is too light to thrust 
hard. Think of Master Burney s weight ; when he 
does touch, twill go home, no doubt of that." 

All this time the captain was on tenter-hooks lest 
the fight had really begun ; a moment s loss of time 
would be fatal to his purpose ; he must bring matters 
to a point. 

"In very truth," he said, "as a man acquainted 
with these things, if I were to wager which of the 
two is like to be killed " 



198 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

" Which ? " cried the women together, as he paused. 

"Both!" 

Even Greensleeves sprang up this time, and Raven- 
shaw found himself confronted by two desperate, 
sobbing creatures. 

" Back, ladies ! " he shouted, quickly. " I will 
stop their righting ! " 

They stood still, regarding him with wondering 
inquiry. 

" If you will stay in this room," he continued. 

"We will not stir a step," cried Lady Green- 
sleeves. " Make haste, for God s sake ! " 

" And if you will give me a handful of those 
yellow boys yonder," he added. 

With a cry of joy, Greensleeves swept up a hand 
ful of the two little piles of gold, and held it out 
to him. 

" Stay," said the brown lady, closing her palm 
over the gold in the other s hand. "He shall have 
it when he brings the two gentlemen back to us, 
friends and unscathed." 

" That s fair," said Ravenshaw ; " so that you give 
it to me privately, ere they take note." 

"Yes, yes!" panted the brunette; and "God s 
name, haste ! " cried Greensleeves ; and the captain, 
without another word, dashed out of the room, and 
down the stairs. 

He ran through the garden behind the tavern, and 



THE RASCAL EMPLOYS HIS WITS. 199 

so by a gate, which the gentlemen had left open, 
to the fields, which stretched northward to Clerken- 
well and Islington. He descried the four gallants 
near at hand, where they had chosen a clean, level 
piece of turf. Fortunately, the many noises in the 
tavern, noises of music, laughter, gaming, and sing 
ing, had kept attention from being drawn to the 
tumult of this affair, and so no one had followed 
the four gentlemen out. The two who had tried 
to make peace had now fallen naturally into the 
place of seconds, and were finishing the preliminaries 
of the fight, while the adversaries stood with their 
doublets off, waiting for the time to begin. Just 
as their weapons met, with a musical ring of steel, 
the captain dashed in and struck up the rapiers with 
his own. 

" Gentlemen, I am defrauded here," he said, as 
the combatants stood back in surprise. " I was the 
first to offend, in the house yonder, and the first to 
be offended. Tis my right to fight one of you first 
I care not which and, by this hand, you shall 
not proceed till my quarrel is settled ! " 

" Oh, pish, man ! " said the little gallant ; " we 
have no quarrel with you. Our fight is begun ; I 
pray, stand aside, and let us have it out." 

" Upon one condition, then," said Ravenshaw. 

The two gallants raised their points, to rush at 
each other. 



2OO CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

" That the survivor shall fight me afterward," he 
finished. 

The two gallants lowered their points, and hesi 
tated. 

" Troth, I have taken no offence of you, sir," said 
Master Burney ; "and given none, I think." 

" But your ladies yonder gave me offence ; and 
to whom shall I look for reparation, if not to you 
two ? " 

" Faith," said the small gallant, " a man who under 
took to give reparation for every foolish word a 
woman spoke, would have no time to eat, drink, 
or sleep." 

" I see how it is," said Ravenshaw, with a shrug. 
" I may not hope for satisfaction unless I force you 
to self-defence ; and that would be murder. But, 
by the foot of a soldier, if I must go without repara 
tion, I ll not be the only one ! If I forego, so must 
you both. How like you that, Master Burney ? " 

" How can I ? He struck me a blow." 

" Well, no doubt, if I pray him, he will withdraw 
the blow. Will you not, sir ? " 

" I do not like to," answered the little man ; "but 
if he will withdraw his laughter " 

"Why, forsooth, a man of known courage may 
withdraw anything, and no harm to his reputation," 
said the captain. " To prove it I will withdraw all 
offence I have given, and will take it that you two, 



THE RASCAL EMPLOYS HIS WITS. 2OI 

on behalf of the ladies, withdraw all offence they 
have done me. Saviolo himself, I swear, could 
not adjust a quarrel more honourably. What say 
you, shall we go back now in peace and friendship 
to bring joy to the hearts of the ladies who are 
dying of fear ? Come, gentlemen, my sword is the 
first to be put up, look you." 

Somewhat sheepishly, the adversaries followed 
his example, to the amusement of the seconds, who 
would doubtless have acted with similar prudence 
had they been exposed to the risk of having to fight 
Captain Raven shaw. The captain then took Master 
Burney and the little gentleman each by an arm, and 
started for the tavern, followed by the other two. 
The song of the three inns-of-court men returned to 
his mind, and he and the two fighters marched back 
to the ladies, singing at the top of their voices : 

" For three merry men, and three merry men, 
And three merry men we be." 

Lady Green sleeves folded the little gentleman in 
her arms till he grimaced with discomfort ; the 
brown beauty leaped up and clung around Master 
Burney s neck ; but, as she did so, she dangled be 
hind his back a purse, in the face of Captain Raven- 
shaw, to whose hand she relinquished it a moment 
later. The captain stepped out into the passage, 
made sure that the purse really contained a handful 



2O2 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

of gold, and then fled down the stairs ere any but 
the brunette knew he was gone. 

The fiddlers, who had waited through all the sus 
pense of the women, now struck up a merry love 
tune, and Master Burney bawled for a drawer to 
bring some more wine, declaring he must drink the 
health of Captain Ravenshaw ; but the captain was 
hastening to his lodging in Smithfield, grinning to 
himself, and fingering the heavy round pieces in the 
purse. 




ONE HAND GESTICULATING, WHILE THE OTHER HELD HIS 
NEW WRITTEN MANUSCRIPT." 



CHAPTER XII. 

MASTER HOLYDAY IN FEAR AND TREMBLING. 

" If I know what to say to her now 
In the way of marriage, I m no graduate." 

A Chaste Maid in Cheapside. 

As Ravenshaw climbed the narrow stairs to his 
room in darkness, he heard the voice of his fellow 
lodger in loud and continued denunciation. Won 
dering at this, for the scholar was wont to speak 
little and never vehemently, the captain hastened 
his upward steps, thinking to rescue Master Holy- 
day from some quarrel with the landlord or other 
person. But when he burst into the chamber he 
found the poet alone, pacing the floor in the flicker 
ing light of an expiring candle, his hair tumbled, his 
eyes wild, one hand gesticulating, while the other 
held his new-written manuscript. 

At sight of Ravenshaw the poet stopped short a 
moment, then finished the passage he had been 
spouting, dropped the manuscript on the table, and, 
coming back to the present with a kind of tired 
shiver, sank exhaustedly upon a joint stool. 

" Excellent ranting," said the captain, " and most 
suitable to what I have to say." He threw his hat 

203 



204 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

and sword-girdle on a bed in a corner of the room, 
filled and lighted a pipe of tobacco, and took up his 
stand before the chimney as one who had weighty 
matters to propound. 

"How suitable?" queried Master Holyday, with 
a languor consequent upon his long stretch of poetic 
fervour. 

" As thus," replied the captain, with a puff. " Your 
play there concerns the carrying away of a lady." 

" Of Helen by Paris ; yes. But that is only a little 
part " 

" Tis a part that you have conducted properly 
and well, no doubt." 

"Why, without boasting, I profess some slight 
skill in these matters." 

" Well, now, look you. Your carrying away this 
lady in the spirit is well ; tis a fit preparation for 
your carrying away a lady in the flesh." 

Master Holyday broke off in the middle of a yawn 
and stared. 

" You shall carry away this goldsmith s daughter to 
morrow night. Now mark how all is to be done 

" God s name, are you mad ? " cried the scholar, 
roused from his lassitude into a great astonishment. 

" No more mad than to have planned all this for 
the saving of that maid from dire calamities, and the 
making of your joy and fortune." 

" My joy ? " 



HO L YD AY IN FEAR AND TREMBLING. 2O5 

" Ay, indeed ; for to possess that maid - 

"Oh, the maid hang all maids!" exclaimed 
Holyday, with a kind of shudder, and falling into 
perturbation. " I ll none of em ! " 

" And as to your fortune, how often have you told 
me what welcome and comfort wait you at your 
father s house the day you come to him with a 
wife ? " 

"Wife!" echoed Master Holyday, and first paled 
with horror, and then gave forth a ghastly laugh. 

"Ay," said the captain, "and such a wife, your 
father will bless the day that made her his daughter ! 
E en though she come without dowry, he cannot 
choose but take her to his heart. Her father will 
not hold out for ever, perchance, when he finds her 
married to his old friend s son. But if he does, she 
hath an uncle who is like to make her his heir, I take 
it. And so, man, there s an end to this beggary for 
you. And now mark what is to be done " 

" No, no, no ! I have not the stomach for it. I 
have not ! " 

" We must be stirring early in the morning," went 
on the captain, " for all must be arranged ere I leave 
London at noon. And first, how you are to call 
upon the goldsmith s family, and secretly get the 
girl s consent." 

" Get her consent ! Never, never ! I ll do no 
wooing ; not I ! " 



206 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

"By God, and you will that, and tis I that 
say so ! " 

The scholar looked wildly at the captain a mo 
ment, then rose and made for the door, as if to 
escape a fearful doom. Ravenshaw quickly caught 
up the manuscript of the puppet-play, and held it 
ready to tear it across. The poet stopped, with a 
sharp cry of alarm, and came back holding out his 
hand for the freshly covered sheets of paper. But 
the captain pushed him to a seat, and retained the 
manuscript. 

" I ll tear it into fifty pieces, and burn em before 
your face," said Ravenshaw, "if you listen not quietly 
to what you must do." 

Poor Holyday, keeping his eyes anxiously upon 
the precious work, gave a piteous groan, and sat 
limp and helpless. 

"At daybreak," began Ravenshaw, "we shall go 
together and bespeak the boat that shall carry 
you and the maid, and your attendants, down the 
river in the evening. It shall be your business 
next to visit the goldsmith as if you came newly 
to London from your father in the country. Tell 
]\taster Etheridge you intend to marry a lady in 
Kent, and that you will be purchasing jewels and 
plate." 

"But, God s sake ! " objected the scholar, dismally, 
and as if he partly doubted the captain s sanity, 



HOLYDAY IN FEAR AND TREMBLING. 2O? 

" have you not passed yourself off to him as me ? 
And how, then, will he believe that I am I ? " 

" Troth, I have been discovered to him as my true 
self." 

"Well, then, as he has been once imposed on, he 
will treat me as an impostor, too," urged Holyday, 
desperately ready to find impediments. 

" No, for if he makes any question, you need but 
stand upon your likeness to your mother. And then 
you can mention a thousand things that his memory 
must share with yours, where I could mention but 
the few you told me. And there was a mistake 
I made, saying it was a terrier that bit him in 
the leg the last time he was at your house, whereas 
it was a water-spaniel, as you had told me. If you 
speak of the spaniel biting him, you will prove your 
self the true Holyday, and confirm it that I was 
a false one." 

" Ne ertheless," moaned the scholar, in despair at 
the whole matter, " twill seem a dubious thing, two 
men appearing within three days time, both calling 
themselves Francis Holyday s son." 

"Tis easily made clear. Say that, travelling to 
London three days ago, you fell in with that rascal, 
Ravenshaw, but knew not what a knave he was. 
Say that he won upon your confidence, you being free 
of mistrust, so that you told him many things of 
yourself, and your intended marriage, and your pur- 



208 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

pose in coming to London, and of Master Etheridge. 
And say that you both took lodgings for the night at 
an inn in Southwark ; when you woke in the morning 
you found yourself ill, and two nights and a day had 
passed while you slept, so that Ravenshaw must have 
given you a draught in your wine, and gone to coun 
terfeit you in the goldsmith s house, thinking to 
make some use of his freedom therein. Oh, they 
will swallow that without a sniff ! And, look you, 
call me a thousand ill names, and say tis your 
dearest wish to kill the scurvy rogue that cozened 
you so." 

Holyday uttered a deep sigh, and shook his head 
lugubriously. 

"And note this," pursued Ravenshaw, "no word 
to any but the maid that she is the lady you came 
to marry. They are hot upon tying her to an old 
withered ass, a knight of Berkshire. That she may 
escape him, I have planned this good fortune for 
you ; but all must be done to-morrow, for he is 
already in town for the wedding, and there is another 
danger threatens her, too, if she tarries in London. 
So, when you have been admitted to the family, 
you must find, or contrive, some time alone with 
Mistress Millicent, and speedily open the matter to 
her." 

Holyday visibly trembled, and was the picture of 
woe. "Good God!" he exclaimed; "how I shall 



HO L YD AY IN FEAR AND TREMBLING, 2OQ 

find voice to speak to her, and words to say, I know 
not ! " 

" One thing will make all easy in a trice. Her 
Uncle Bartlemy, whom you know, would serve her 
an he saw the way ; and even to the last she has 
looked for some secret help from him. You shall 
therefore begin by saying you come from her Uncle 
Bartlemy, who bids her accept you as a husband. 
Say that his description of her beauty, and of her 
unhappy plight, hath so wrought upon your mind 
that you were deep in love ere you e en saw her. 
And then say the reality so far outshines the descrip 
tion, your love is a thousand times confirmed and 
multiplied. She cannot but believe you are from her 
uncle, knowing you live in his part of the country. 
After that, if you have time for a few love speeches 
of a poetical nature, such as, no doubt, this work is 
full of" (he held up the manuscript) 

"Troth," said the poet, " twere easier forme to 
write whole folios of love than speak a line of it to 
a real maid ! " 

" Oh, heart up, man ! " said Ravenshaw. " Twill 
be smooth sailing, once a start is made. But you 
will not have to say much. Your youth and figure 
will speak for you when she contrasts them with Sir 
Peregrine. In her present mind, any man were a 
sweet refuge from that old kex. I remember she 
said she would prefer a good swordman ; tell her you 



2IO CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

are a good swordman, therefore. And then bid her 
meet you at her garden gate in Friday Street at 
dusk, ready for a journey. Not earlier, look you, for 
the men who will attend you may not be in waiting 
at the White Horse till sunset, and twere dangerous 
to miss them." 

The scholar breathed fast and hard, as if a burden 
were being forced upon him, under which he must 
surely faint, and his eyes roved about as if seeking 
a way of evasion. 

" Now all this must be agreed upon betwixt you 
and the maid a full hour before noon," proceeded 
Ravenshaw, " so that you may come to me with the 
news ere I set out from London. I wish to go to 
my new affairs with an easy mind. The place I go 
to is not far from that to which you and the maid 
shall go, and I will meet you in proper time. But 
take note of one thing. She is not to know that I 
have the least hand in this business ; if she did, she 
would not stir a step in it, for she abhors the very 
name of Ravenshaw. Therefore, when you are with 
her, if my name comes up, be sure you vilify me 
roundly." 

" I could vilify you now, for pushing me into this 
business ! " 

" Very like ; and think not to get out of it till it s 
done ; for, mark well, I shall not be far from you 
while you are in the goldsmith s house. I shall 



HOL YD A Y IN FEAR AND TREMBLING. 2 1 I 

bring you in sight of the house, and shall wait in 
sight of it till you come out ; and if you come not 
out by eleven o clock, and with word that all is 
planned, then, by these two hands, I know not what 
will happen ! " 

The poor scholar shrank at the captain s fierce 
manner. 

"And now, for your flight and marriage," resumed 
Ravenshaw, after an impressive pause ; and he set 
forth particulars as to their being joined by Cutting 
Tom and his men, their taking boat, their trip down 
the river with the vantage of tide and moonlight, 
their landing at whatever point Holyday, in his 
knowledge of the country, should deem best. " You 
will then find your way as fast as may be," he con 
tinued, "to the house of your friend Sir Nicholas, 
the parson. Prevail upon him to keep you hid there 
till he can marry you by license, which can be quickly 
had of the bishop s commissary of Rochester. Be 
ing so much your friend, Sir Nicholas will wink 
at little shortcomings, such as the consent of the 
girl s parents being omitted, and that of her friends 
sufficing. The maid can swear she is not precon 
tracted ; there is truly no consanguinity, and for 
names to a bond, the parson can scrape up another 
besides your own. And so, safely tied, you shall 
bear her to your father s house, and defy the 
world." 



212 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

Master Holyday looked as if he fancied himself 
bound to the seat of a galley for life. 

"The parson must lodge your attendants till the 
next day," added Ravenshaw, "when I will come and 
dismiss them. Stable room will do. Belike I will 
see you when I come ; but she must not set eyes on 
me. When all s done, you may tell her what you 
will. Her uncle will stand your friend, I think. 
And so, a rascal s blessing on you both ! " 

The poet was silent and miserable. But after a 
time he looked up, and, stretching forth his hand, 
said, in a supplicating way : 

" Give me back my puppet-play, then. Tis my 
masterwork, I think." 

" You shall have it back when you are married," 
replied Ravenshaw, placing it carefully inside his 
doublet. 

Master Holyday groaned, as one who gives him 
self up for lost. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

A RIOT IN CHEAPSIDE. 

" Down with them ! Cry clubs for prentices ! " 

The Shoemaker s Holiday. 

WAN and tremulous, after a night of half-sleep 
varied by ominous dreams, Master Holyday was led 
by the captain, in the early morning, to the wharf 
where was to be found the waterman whom Raven- 
shaw knew he could trust. The scholar attended in 
a kind of dumb trance to the interview between 
Ravenshaw and the boatman, who was a powerful, 
leather-faced fellow, one that listened intently, scru 
tinised keenly, and expressed himself in quick nods 
and short grunts. Even the unwonted sight of gold 
in the captain s hands did not stir the unhappy poet 
to more than a transient look of faint wonder. 

Ravenshaw pulled him by the sleeve to a cook s 
shop in Thames Street, but the wretched graduate 
had difficulty in gulping down his food, and scarce 
could have told whether it was hot pork pie or cold 
pease porridge. It went differently with the ale 
which the captain caused to be set before them after 
ward. Holyday poured this down his throat with 

213 



214 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW, 

feverish avidity, and pushed forth his pot for more. 
At last Ravenshaw, considering it time for the gold 
smith s family to be up, grasped his companion firmly 
by the crook of the arm, and said, curtly : 

" Come ! " 

The poor scholar, limp and sinking, turned gray in 
the face, and went forth with the look of a prisoner 
dragged to execution. The captain had to exert 
force to keep him from lagging behind, as the two 
went northward through Bread Street. They stopped 
once, to buy a cheap sword, scabbard, and hanger ; 
which Holyday dreamily suffered the shopman to 
attach to his girdle. N earing Cheapside, the doomed 
bachelor hung back more and more, and when finally 
they turned into that thoroughfare, his face all terror, 
he suddenly jerked from Ravenshaw s hold, and made 
a bolt toward Cornhill. 

But the captain, giving chase, caught him by the 
collar, in front of Bow church, seized his neck as in 
a vice, turned him about toward the goldsmith s 
house, took a tighter hold of his arm, and impelled 
him relentlessly forward. From his affrighted eyes, 
ashen cheeks, and dragging gait, people in the street 
supposed he was being taken to Newgate prison by a 
queen s officer. 

"Now, look you," said the captain, with grim 
earnestness, as they approached Master Etheridge s 
shop, " I durst not go too near the place. I shall 



A RIOT IN CHEAPSIDE. 21 5 

leave you in a moment ; but I shall go over the 
way, and take my post behind the cross, where I 
can watch the house in safety. Mark this : my hand 
shall be upon my sword-hilt, and if you try flight, or 
come forth unsuccessful, you shall find yourself as 
dead a poet as Virgil what though I swing for you, 
I care not ! Come forth not later than the stroke 
of eleven ; walk toward the Poultry, and I will join 
you. Keep me not waiting, or, by this hand Go ; 
and remember ! " 

He gave the scholar a parting push, and strode 
across the street ; a few seconds later he was peering 
around the corner of the cross, and Master Holyday 
was lurching into the goldsmith s shop. 

The shop, as has been said, extended back to where 
a passage separated it from domestic regions of the 
house ; but it was, itself, in two parts, a front part, 
open to the street, and a more private part, where the 
master usually stayed, with his most valuable wares. 

In entering the outer shop, Holyday had to pass 
the end of a case, at which a flat-capped, snub-nosed, 
solid-bodied apprentice was arranging gold cups, 
chains, and trinkets. 

" What is t you lack ? " demanded this youth, 
squaring up to the scholar. 

" God knows," thought Holyday. " My wits, I 
think." And then he found voice to say that he 
desired speech of Master Etheridge. 



21 6 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

The shopman pointed to the open door leading to 
the farther apartment, and thither Holyday went. 
The place was mainly lighted by a side window ; the 
poet could not fail to distinguish the master, by his 
rich cloth doublet and air of authority, from the 
journeymen who sat working upon shining pieces of 
plate. 

"What is it you lack, sir?" inquired Master 
Etheridge. 

" Sir," replied Holyday, in a small, trembling 
voice, " I must pray you, bear with me if I speak 
wildly. I am sick from a sleeping-drug that a villain 
abused me with three days ago, one Captain 
Ravenshaw " 

At this name the goldsmith, who had received 
elaborate accounts from Sir Peregrine of last night s 
incident in the garden, suddenly warmed out of his 
air of coldness and distrust, and began to show a 
sympathetic curiosity which made it easier for Holy- 
day to proceed with his tale. When the scholar 
announced who he was, the goldsmith lapsed for a 
moment into a hard incredulity ; but this passed 
away as Holyday, not daring to stop now that he had 
so good an impetus, deftly alluded to his father, 
"whom, they say, I scarce resemble, being all my 
mother in face," quoth he parenthetically, and 
hoped that Master Etheridge had forgiven him his 
water-spaniel s bite the last time the two had met. 



A RIOT IN CHEAPSIDE. 21 / 

"Aha ! I knew it was a water-spaniel," said Master 
Etheridge, triumphantly. " The rogue would have 
it a terrier." This hasty speech required that the 
goldsmith should relate how the impostor had played 
upon him and his household ; at which news Master 
Holyday had to open his eyes, and feign great 
astonishment and indignation. He found this kind 
of acting easier than he had supposed, and was 
beginning to feel like a live, normal creature ; when 
suddenly his mind was brought back to the real task 
before him by Master Etheridge, saying : 

"Well, the rascal failed of his purpose here, 
whatever it was ; and now twill please the women to 
see the true after the counterfeit. This way, pray 
what, art so ill ? Tom, Dickon, hold him up ! " 

" Nay, I can walk, I thank ye," said poor Holyday, 
faintly, and accompanied his host into the passage, 
and up the stairs to the large room overlooking 
Cheapside. No one being there, the goldsmith went 
elsewhere in search of his wife, leaving the scholar 
to a discomfiting solitude. He gazed out of the 
window at the cross, and fancied he saw the edge of 
a hat-brim that he knew, protruding from the other 
side. He cursed the hour when he had fallen in 
with Ravenshaw, and wished an earthquake might 
swallow the goldsmith s house. 

When he heard Master Etheridge returning, and 
the swish of a feminine gown, he felt that the awful 



21 8 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

moment had come. But it was only the goldsmith s 
wife, and she proved such a motherly person that he 
found it quite tolerable to sit answering her ques 
tions. Presently Master Etheridge was called down 
to the shop, and his wife had some sewing brought 
to her, at which she set to work, keeping up with 
Holy day a conversation oft broken by many long 
pauses. 

Each time the door opened, the scholar trembled 
for fear Mistress Millicent would enter. But as time 
passed and she came not, a new fear assailed him, 
that he might not be able to see her at all, and that 
the dread stroke of eleven should bring some catas 
trophe not to be imagined. He was now as anxious 
for her arrival on the scene as he had first dreaded 
it. His heart went up to his throat when the door 
opened again ; and down to his shoes when it let in 
nobody but Sir Peregrine Medway. 

The old knight inspected Holyday for a moment 
with the curiosity due to genuine ware after one 
has been imposed upon by spurious ; and then he 
dropped the youth from attention as a person of no 
consequence, and asked for Mistress Millicent. 

"Troth," said Mistress Etheridge, "the baggage 
must needs be keeping her bed two hours or so ; 
said she was not well. She has missed her lesson on 
the virginals. I know not what ails her of late. I m 
sure twas not so with me when I was toward mar- 



A RIOT IN CHEAPSIDE. 2 19 

riage, but she sha n t mope longer in her chamber. 
Lettice ! " she called, going to the door, and gave 
orders to the woman. 

Holyday breathed fast, and stared at the door. 
After a short while Millicent entered, with pouting 
lips, crimson cheeks, and angry eyes ; she came 
forward in a reluctant way, and submitted to the 
tremulous embrace of the old knight. Not until 
she was free of his shaking arms did she take note 
of Master Holyday, and then she looked at him with 
the faintest sign of inquiry. 

As for the scholar, a single glance had given him 
a sweeping sense of her beauty ; daunted by it, he 
had dropped his eyes, and he dared not raise them 
from the tips of her neatly shod feet, which showed 
themselves beneath the curtain of her pink petticoat. 

" Tis my daughter, Master Holyday," said Mis 
tress Etheridge, "and soon to be Sir Peregrine s 
lady." Holyday bowed vaguely at the pretty shoes, 
and cast a vacuous smile upon the old knight. 

"What, another Master Holyday ? " said Millicent, 
in an ironical manner suited to her perverse mood. 

" The true one," replied her mother ; " that rogue 
cozened him as he did us. Well, twas a lesson, 
Master Holyday, not to prate of your affairs to 
strangers." 

"The rogue shall pay for giving me the lesson," 
ventured Holyday, bracing himself to play his part. 



220 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

Mistress Millicent looked as if she doubted this. 

" I know he is a much-vaunted sword man," added 
Holyday, catching her expression ; " but I have 
some acquaintance with steel weapons myself." 

His small, unnatural voice was at such variance 
with his words, that Millicent looked amused as well 
as doubting. He felt he was not getting on well, 
and was for sinking into despair ; but the thought of 
Ravenshaw waiting behind the cross, hand on hilt, 
acted as a goad, and raised the wretched poet to a 
desperate alertness. 

Master Etheridge came in, holding out his hollowed 
palm. At sight of its contents Mistress Millicent 
turned pale, and caught the back of a chair. Sir 
Peregrine bent his eyes over them gloatingly, and 
took them up in his lean ringers. 

"The wedding-ring, sooth," he said. "Good lack, 
twas speedy work, father. But which of the two 
is it?" 

"Which you choose," replied the goldsmith. 
" They are like as twins. I had the two made to 
the same measurement ; tis so small, one of them 
will be a pretty thing to keep in the shop for show. 
Belike there may be another bride s finger in London 
twill fit." 

"Troth now, my first wife had just such another 
finger," said the knight. " I know not which to 
take; tis a pity both cannot be used." 



A RIOT IN CHEAPSIDE. 221 

Master Holyday was suddenly inspired with an 
impish thought, the very conception of which brought 
courage with it. 

"An you please, Master Etheridge," he said, "the 
lady I wish to marry hath such another hand, in size, 
as your sweet daughter here can boast of. It were a 
pleasant thing, now, an I might buy one of these 
rings." 

"Nay, by my knighthood," quoth Sir Peregrine, 
with a burst of that magniloquent generosity which 
went with his vanity, " buy it thou shalt not, but 
have it thou shalt. I buy em both, father ; see em 
both put down to me. Here, young sir ; and let thy 
bride know what tis the mate of." And he tossed 
one of the rings to Holyday, not graciously, but as 
one throws a bone to a dog. 

" She will hold herself much honoured," said Holy- 
day, coolly, picking up the little circlet from among 
the rushes, and inwardly glad to make a fool of such a 
supercilious old fop. Noticing that Millicent observed 
his irony and approved it, he went on : " Of a truth, 
though, I am somewhat beforehand in the matter ; 
the maid s consent yet hangs fire." And he cast her 
a look which he thought would set her thinking. 

"Troth, then," said the goldsmith, good-humour- 
edly, " you go the right way to carry her by storm. 
Show her the wedding-ring, and tell her tis for her, 
and I warrant all s done." 



222 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

" I will take your counsel," said Holyday, glancing 
from the ring to Millicent s finger. " She might be 
afflicted with a worse husband, I tell her." 

"Ay, young man," put in Sir Peregrine, for the 
sake of showing his wisdom in such matters, " be not 
afraid to sound your own praises to her. If you do 
not so yourself, who will ? except, of course, your 
merits were such as show without being spoken for." 
The knight unconsciously glanced down at himself. 

" Oh, I have those to recommend me that have 
authority with her," said the scholar. " She hath an 
uncle will plead my suit ; and truly he ought to, for 
twas he set me to wooing her, and from his account 
I became her servant ere ever I had seen her." 

" Hath the lady no parents, then ? " queried Mas 
ter Etheridge. 

" Oh, yes ; they are well inclined to me, too ; I 
spoke of the uncle because twas his word made me 
first seek her out." 

"And did you find her all he had said?" asked 
Mistress Etheridge. 

" Oh, even more beautiful. Tis her beauty makes 
me bashful in commending myself to her." 

" Oh, never be afraid," said Mistress Etheridge. 
"You have a good figure, for one thing, and a 
modest mien." 

" So her mother says," acquiesced Holyday, inno 
cently. 



A RIOT IN CHEAPSIDE. 223 

" Your father hath a good estate," said Master 
Etheridge, "and that speaks louder for you than 
modesty or figure." 

" That is what her father hath the goodness to say 
for me. I hope she will take her parents words to 
mind. But I doubt not, in her heart she thinks me 
better than some." 

"Well, her parents are the best judges," said Mas 
ter Etheridge. " I must go down to the shop ; you 
will eat dinner with us, friend Ralph ? " 

" I thank you, sir ; but I must meet a gentleman 
elsewhere at eleven o clock." 

If Mistress Millicent had taken his meaning, he 
thought, she would now see the necessity of speedily 
having a word with him alone. 

After the goldsmith had left the room, Sir Pere 
grine directed the conversation into such channels 
that Holyday was perforce out of it. The old 
knight evidently thought that enough talk had 
gone to the affairs of this young gentleman from 
Kent. 

The scholar, wondering how matters would go, 
agitated within but maintaining a kind of preternat 
ural calm without, ventured to scan Millicent s face 
for a sign. She was regarding him furtively, as if 
she apprehended, yet feared to find herself deceived ; 
in truth, her experience with Captain Ravenshaw 
had made it difficult for her to hope, or trust, anew. 



224 CAPTAIN RA VENSHA W. 

But surely fate could not twice abuse her so ; this 
must indeed be Ralph Holyday, her father was not 
likely to be deceived a second time, and the Holy- 
days were neighbours of her uncle, from whom she 
had not entirely ceased to look for aid. In any case, 
there, in the shape of Sir Peregrine, was a horrible 
certainty, to which a new risk was preferable. With 
a swift motion, therefore, she put her finger to her 
lip ; and Master Holyday felt a great load lifted from 
his mind. 

While Sir Peregrine was entertaining Mistress 
Etheridge with a minute account of how he had 
once cured himself of a calenture, Millicent sud 
denly asked : 

" What is the posy in your wedding-ring, Master 
Holyday ? " 

The scholar screwed up his eyes to see the rhyme 
traced within the circlet. 

" Nay, let me look," she demanded, impatiently. 
"I have better eyes, I trow." 

He handed her the ring ; she walked to the win 
dow, to examine it in good light ; the casement was 
open, to let in the soft May air. Suddenly she 
turned to the others, with a cry : 

" Mercy on me ! I have dropped Master Holy- 
day s ring into the street." 

"Oh, thou madcap child!" exclaimed Mistress 
Etheridge. 



A RIOT TN CHEAPSIDE. 22$ 

"Oh, tis nothing," said Holyday, confusedly, not 
yet seeing his way. " I can soon find it." 

" Nay, I saw where it fell," said Millicent, quickly. 
"Tis right I fetch it back." 

Ere any one could say nay, she ran from the 
room. Holyday, understanding, called out, " Nay, 
trouble not yourself ! " and hastened after her as if to 
forestall her in recovering the ring. He was upon the 
stairs in time to see that she went out, not through 
the shop, but through the door from the passage into 
Friday Street. He followed, wondering what Raven- 
shaw would think on seeing the two. When they 
came into Cheapside she began to search a little at 
one side of the open shop-front, so as not to be seen 
from within. Glancing up, however, Holyday saw 
that Mistress Etheridge and Sir Peregrine were look 
ing down from the window above. He dared not 
turn his eyes toward the cross, for fear of meeting 
those of Ravenshaw. Both he and the maid searched 
the cobble paving, within whispering space of each 
other. 

" Tis safe in my hand," she said ; " so we may be 
as long finding it as need be. What mean you with 
this talk of a maid s uncle ? " 

" I mean thine Uncle Bartlemy," said he, heartened 
up at the easy turn his task had taken. " He sent 
me to save you from wedding this old knight. The 
only escape is by wedding me instead. If you 



226 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

are willing, be at your garden gate in Friday Street 
this nightfall, ready for a journey by boat. The rest 
is in my hands." 

Thank Heaven, she reflected, it needed but a 
word from her to settle the matter. She could 
have swooned for joy at the unexpected prospect 
of escape. But she was not flattered by this young 
stranger s unloverlike manner. The word could wait 
a moment. 

"What, does my uncle think I will take the first 
husband he sends, and go straight to marriage with 
out even a wooing beforehand ? " 

" Why," said Holyday, thrown back into his agi 
tation, " there s no time for wooing before this 
marriage. It must wait till after." 

"Troth, how do I know twill be to my liking, 
then, without ever a sample of it first ? " 

" Did I not say within," he faltered, feeling very 
red and foolish, " that your charms overpower my 
tongue ? " 

" Well, if you think a maid is to be won for 
the mere asking, even though to save herself at 
a pinch, I marvel at you." 

Her tone was decidedly chill. He felt she was 
slipping from him, and he thought of the relentless 
man behind the cross ; he must rouse himself to 
a decisive effort. 

"Stay," he snid, ar&gt; the perspiration came out 



A RIOT IN CHEAPSIDE. 

upon his face. " If you must have wooing god 
a mercy ! Thy charms envelop me as some sweet 
cloud Of heavenly odours, making me to swoon." 

She threw him a side-glance of amazement, from 
her pretended search of the ground. 

" Wooing ! " he thought ; " she shall have it, 
of the strongest." And he went on: " And wert 
thou drowned in the floorless sea, Thine eyes would 
draw me to the farthest depths." 

" Why," quoth she, " that sounds like what the 
players speak. Do you woo in blank verse ? " 

" Tis mine own, I swear," he said, truly enough, 
for it was from his new puppet-play of Paris and 
Helen. " I ll give you as many lines as you desire, 
only remember that time presses. I must away 
before eleven o clock. Best agree to be waiting 
at the gate at nightfall, ready for flight." 

" If I wed you, shall I be your slave, or my 
own mistress ? " 

" Oh, no yes, I mean as you will. You 
shall have all your own way," he said, glibly. 

"No stint of gowns, free choice of what I shall 
wear, visits to London at my pleasure, my own 
time to go to the shops, milliners of my own 
choosing ? " 

" Yes, yes ! " 

" My own horses to ride, and a coach, and what 
maids I like, and what company I desire, and no 



228 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

company I don t desire, and all the days to be spent 
after my liking ? " 

" Yes, anything, everything ! " 

" Why, then, this marriage will not be such a bad 
thing. But I cannot think you love me, if you give 
me so many privileges." 

" Oh," said he, petulantly, worn almost out of 
patience, " tis the vehemence of my love makes 
me promise all rather than lose you ! " At the same 
time, he said in his heart : " I shall be happier, 
the more such a plague keeps away from me ! " 

" How you knock your sword against things ! " 
she complained. " One would say you were not used 
to it." 

" Tis my confusion in your presence," he 
answered, wearily. " I can use the sword well 
enough." 

"Well, " She paused a moment, trembling on 
the brink ; then said, a little unsteadily : " I will 
be at the gate at nightfall." 

A coach was lumbering along at the farther half 
of the street. A large lady therein, masked, blonde- 
haired, called out toward the other side of the 
cross : 

" How now, Captain Ravenshaw ? Hast spent 
all that money? Art waiting for a purse to cut?" 

Millicent gave Holyday a startled look, and ex 
claimed : 



A RIOT IN CHEAPSIDE. 2 29 

" She said Captain Ravenshaw ! the rogue that 
cozened you. He must be yonder." 

" Impossible ! " gasped the scholar, turning pale. 

"It must be he. She is laughing at him. What, 
are you afraid ? you that would make him pay for 
the lesson ! " 

In desperation, the fate-hounded poet grasped his 
sword-hilt, and strode to the other side of the cross, 
coming face to face with the captain. 

" I m not to blame," said the terrified scholar, in 
an undertone. " She heard your name ; I had to 
seek you 

"Then feign to fight me," answered Ravenshaw, 
whipping out his rapier. "All s lost else." 

Holyday drew his sword, and began to make 
awkward thrusts. 

" Has she consented ? " whispered Ravenshaw, 
parrying and returning the lunges in such manner 
as not to touch the other s flesh. 

"Yes," said the poet, continuing to fence, but 
backing from his formidable-looking antagonist in 
spite of himself, so that the two quickly worked 
away from the cross into full view of the gold 
smith s house. 

Meanwhile, Lady Greensleeves s coach had passed 
on ; Mistress Etheridge and Sir Peregrine, from their 
window, had observed Holyday s movement, and now 
recognised the captain ; Millicent had run to the 



230 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

shop entrance, and her father, seeing her there, had 
come forth wondering what she was doing in the 
street, a question which yielded to his sudden 
interest in the fight. Shopkeepers hastened thither 
from their doors, people in the street quickly gath 
ered around, but all kept safely distant from the 
clashing weapons. 

"Give way, and take refuge in the shop," said 
Ravenshaw to his adversary, in the low voice neces 
sary between the two, " else somebody will come 
that knows us ; if our friendship be spoken of, 
they ll smell collusion." 

The scholar, making all the sword-play of which 
he was capable, rapidly yielded ground. 

"But not too fast," counselled the captain, using 
his skill to make his antagonist show the better, 
" else she ll think you a sorry swordman." 

Poor Holyday, panting, perspiring, weak-kneed, 
light-headed, but upheld by the mysterious force of 
Ravenshaw s steady gaze, did as he was bid. A 
murmur of excited comment arose from the crowd ; 
the windows of the high-peaked houses began to 
be filled with faces. Ravenshaw perceived there 
must soon be an end of this ; so, nodding for the 
scholar to fall back more rapidly, he advanced with 
thrusts that looked dangerous. 

Millicent, who had stood in bewilderment since the 
beginning of the fight, suddenly realised the folly 



A RIOT IN CHEAPSIDE. 2$ I 

of any ordinary man s crossing swords with Captain 
Ravenshaw. If Holyday were slain or hurt, what 
of her escape ? 

"Good heaven!" she cried, in a transport of 
alarm. " Master Holyday will be killed ! Father, 
help him!" 

" Murder, murder ! " shouted the goldsmith. 
" Constables ! go for constables, some of ye ! " 

Even at that word, the captain s rapier point came 
through a loose part of Master Holyday s doublet, 
and the scholar, for an instant thinking himself 
touched, stumbled back in terror. 

Millicent screamed. " Constables ?" cried she; 
"a man might be killed ten times ere they came. 
Prentices! Clubs! clubs!" 

With an answering shout, her father s flat-capped 
lads rushed out from where they had been looking 
across the cases. With their bludgeon-like weapons 
in hand, they took up the cry, " Clubs ! clubs ! " and 
made for the fighters, intent upon getting within 
striking distance of Ravenshaw. 

The captain turned to keep them off. Holyday, 
quite winded, staggered back to the shop entrance. 
Millicent caught him by the sleeve, and drew him 
into the rear apartment, scarce observed in the fresh 
interest that matters had taken in the street. He 
put away his sword, panting and trembling. She 
led him into the passage, and then to the Friday 



232 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

Street door, bidding him make good his flight, and 
saying she would be at the gate at nightfall. She 
then returned to the front of the shop. 

As he ran down Friday Street, Holy day heard an 
increased tumult in Cheapside behind him ; he knew 
that apprentices must be gathering from every side ; 
Ravenshaw s position would be that of a stag sur 
rounded by a multitude of threatening hounds. A 
thrown club might bring him down at any moment. 
The scholar, with a sudden catching at the throat, 
ran into the White Horse tavern, and, seizing a 
tapster by the arms, said hoarsely in his ear : 

" The noise in Cheapside the prentices they 
will kill Ravenshaw for God s sake, Tony ! the 
friend of all tapsters, he but say not I summoned 
ye." 

He dashed out and away, while Tony was tearing 
off his apron and bawling out the name of every 
drawer in the place. 

Meanwhile, in the middle of Cheapside, in the 
space left open by the swelling crowd for its own 
safety, a strange spectacle was presented : one man 
with sword and dagger, menaced by an ever increas 
ing mob of apprentices with their clubs. It was a 
bear baited by dogs, the shouts of the apprentices 
dinning the ears of the onlookers like the barking of 
mastiffs in the ring on the Bankside. When the first 
band of apprentices rushed forth, two stopped short 



A RIOT IN CHEAPSIDE. 233 

as his sword-point darted to meet them, and the 
others ran around to attack him from behind. But 
with a swift turn he was threatening these, and they 
sprang away to save themselves. Ere they could 
recover, he was around again to face the renewed 
oncoming of the first two. But now through the 
surging crowd, forcing their way with shouts and 
prods, came apprentices from the neighbouring 
shops, in quick obedience to the cry of " Clubs/ 
Ravenshaw was hemmed in on all quarters. By a 
swift rush in one direction, a swift turn in another, 
a swift side thrust of his rapier in a third, a swift 
slash of his dagger in a fourth, he contrived to make 
every side of him so dangerous that each menacing 
foe would fall back ere coming into good striking 
distance. 

He had once thought of backing against the cross, 
so that his enemies might not completely encircle 
him ; but he perceived in time that they could then 
fling their clubs at him without risk of hitting any 
one else. As it was, the first club hurled at his 
head, being safely dodged, struck one of the thrower s 
own comrades beyond ; a second one, too high thrown, 
landed among some women in the crowd, who set up 
an angry screaming ; and a third had the fate of the 
first. Some clubs were then aimed lower, but as 
many missed the captain as met him, and those that 
met him were seemingly of no more effect than if 



234 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

they had been sausages. As those who threw their 
clubs had them to seek, and knew their short knives 
to be useless except at closer quarters than they 
dared come to, the apprentices abandoned throwing, 
and tried for a chance of striking him from behind. 

But he seemed to be all front, so unexpected were 
his turns, so sudden his rushes. Had any of his foes 
continued engaging his attention till a simultaneous 
onslaught could be made from all sides, he had been 
done for ; but this would have meant death to those 
that faced him, and not a rascal of the yelling pack 
was equal to the sacrifice. So they menaced him all 
around, approaching, retreating, running hither and 
thither for a better point of attack. But the man 
seemed to have four faces, eight hands ; steel seemed 
to radiate from him. They attempted to strike down 
his sword-point, but were never quick enough. With 
set teeth, fast breath, glowing eyes, he thrust, 
and turned, and darted, maintaining around him a 
magic circle, into which it was death to set foot. 
Well he knew that he could not keep this up for 
long ; the very pressure of the growing crowd of his 
foes must presently sweep the circle in upon him, 
and though he might kill three or four, or a dozen? 
in the end he must fall beneath a rain of blows. 

And what then ? Well, a fighting man must die 
some day, and the madness of combat makes death 
a trifle. But who would be at London Bridge before 



A RIOT IN CHEAPSIDE. 

noon to pay Cutting Tom, and what would become 
of all his well-wrought designs to save the maid, her 
whose contumely against him it would be sweet to 
repay by securing her happiness? To do some 
good for somebody, as a slight balance against 
his rascally, worthless life this had been a new 
dream of his. He cast a look toward the gold 
smith s house. She was now at the window, with 
her mother and Sir Peregrine, and she gazed down 
with a kind of self-accusing horror, as if fright 
ened at the storm she had raised. God, could 
he but carry out his purpose yet ! His eyes clouded 
for an instant ; then he took a deep breath, and 
coolly surveyed his foes. 

More apprentices struggled through the crowd. 
Their cries, thrown back by the projecting gables of 
the houses, were hoarse and implacable. Pushed 
from behind, a wave of the human sea of Raven- 
shaw s enemies was flung close to him. He thrust 
out, and ran his point through a shoulder ; instantly 
withdrawing his blade, he sprang toward another 
advancing group, and opened a great red gash in the 
foremost face. A fierce howl of rage went up, and 
even from the spectators came the fierce cry, " Down 
with Ravenshaw ! death to the rascal ! " Maddened, 
he plunged his weapons into the heaving bundles of 
flesh that closed in upon him, while at last the storm 
of clubs beat upon his head and body. The roar 



236 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

against him ceased not ; it was all " Death to him ! " 
Not a voice was for him, not a look showed pity, 
not a 

" Ravenshaw ! Ravenshaw ! Tapsters for Raven- 
shaw ! " 

What cry was this, from the narrow mouth of 
Friday Street, a cry fresh and shrill, and audible 
above the hoarse roar of the crowd ? Everybody 
turned to look. Some among the apprentices, tav 
ern-lads themselves, stood surprised, and then, seeing 
Tony and his fellow drawers from the White Horse 
beating a way through the crowd with clubs and 
pewter pots, promptly took up the cry, "Tapsters 
for Ravenshaw ! " and fell to belabouring the shop 
apprentices around them. The new shout was 
echoed from the corner of Bread Street, as a troop 
of pot-boys from the Mermaid, apprised by a back 
yard messenger from the White Horse, came upon 
the scene. The prospect of a more general fight, 
against weapons similar to their own, acted like 
magic upon Ravenshaw s assailants. Those who 
were not disabled turned as one man, to crack heads 
more numerous and easier to get at. Ravenshaw, 
with an exultant bound of the heart, made a final 
rush, upsetting all before him, for the goldsmith s 
shop ; ran through to the passage, turned and gained 
the door leading to the garden, dashed forward and 
across the turf, unfastened the gate, and plunged 



A RIOT IN CHEAPSIDE. 2$? 

down Friday Street with all the breath left in 
him. 

A few of the apprentices pursued him into the 
shop, knocking over a case of jewelry and small 
plate as they crowded forward. The goldsmith, 
appalled at the danger of loss and damage, flung 
himself upon them to drive them back. Those who 
got to the passage ran straight on through to the 
kitchen, instead of deviating to the garden door. 
After a search, they observed the latter. 

But by that time Captain Ravenshaw, registering 
an inward vow in favour of Tony and all tapsters, 
and knowing that the fight must soon die out harm 
lessly in the more ordinary phase it had taken, was 
dragging his aching body down Watling Street to 
meet Cutting Tom at London Bridge. 

"A fit farewell to London," said he to himself. 
"The town will deem itself well rid of a rascal, I 
trow." 



CHAPTER XIV. 

JERN1NGHAM SEES THE WAY TO HIS DESIRE. 

" Stands the wind there, boy ? Keep them in that key, 
The wench is ours before to-morrow day." 

The Merry Devil of Edmonton. 

MASTER JERNINGHAM, upon setting Gregory to dog 
the steps of Ravenshaw, had made all haste from the 
Temple Church to Deptford, where he passed the 
afternoon in busy superintendence, and where he lay 
that night. But whether at work, or in the vain 
attitude of sleep, he housed a furnace within him, 
the signs of which about his haggard eyes were 
terrible to see, to the experienced observation of 
Sir Clement Ermsby when that gentleman greeted 
him upon the deck of the anchored ship in the 
morning. 

" Death of my life, man ! thou hast the look of 
Bedlam in thy face. And thou wert formerly the 
man of rock ! The wench is not to be thine, 
then ? " 

" She is, or I am to be the devil s ! " replied 
Jerningham. 

" But we sail to-morrow. Or do we not ? " 



JERNINGHAM SEES THE WAY. 239 

"Ay, we sail to-morrow. Is not the bishop to 
come and bid us Godspeed, and see us lift anchor ? 
But the maid shall sail with us." 

" Oho ! Without her consent ? " 

" I cannot wait for that longer. I have been some 
time coming to this mind ; in bed last night I resolved 
upon my course. Unless my man Gregory hath, by 
some marvel, put the matter forward in the mean 
time, I will take a band of those Wapping rascals " 
(he nodded toward some of his sailors who were 
drawing up casks alongside, singing at the work) 
"to the goldsmith s house to-night, force an upper 
window, and carry her off, though murder be done 
to accomplish it. We sail to-morrow ; the deed will 
not be traced till we are far afloat, if ever." 

" Twill be luck if you get her safe from the house. 
Will you bring her straight to the ship, for the bishop 
to find when he comes to bless our venture ? " 

" I am not yet a parish fool. I will take her by 
boat to Blackwall ; the Dutchman there will lock her 
up in his inn over night. To-morrow, when the 
bishop has seen us sail, we shall but round the Isle 
of Dogs, and then lay to at Blackwall and fetch 
the maid. A sleeping draught will make easy 
handling of her, and we can bring her aboard in a 
sack. Then ho for the seas, and the island ; we 
shall set up our own kingdom there, I trow." 

"If we might give the bishop the slip, and not 



240 CAPTATN RAVENSHAW. 

tarry for his prayers, you d be spared trusting the 
Dutchman." 

" Oh, he thrives by keeping secrets ; he is a safe, 
honest rogue. I durst not give the bishop the slip ; 
he would be so fain to know the reason, he would 
send post to the warden of the Cinque Ports ; and we 
should have a pinnace alongside as we came into the 
narrow seas. Especially as he would have heard 
of this maid s kidnapping. Such news flies." 

" You were not always wont to be so wary ; you 
think of every possibility." 

" I have been warned, in my fortune, of an obstacle 
at the last hour. I must be watchful." 

" Well, God reward your vigilance, and your enter 
prise with the wench," said Sir Clement, lightly. He 
would face anything, and yet cared little for anything, 
save when a whim possessed him. 

Jerningham returned to Winchester House by 
horse, in good time before noon, to see Raven shaw 
set out for the Grange, and to receive Gregory s 
report of the captain s doings. 

Dismissing the servant who opened the gate at 
which he arrived, Jerningham tied his horse just 
within the entrance, and waited. He would be 
much disappointed if the captain came not, for he 
could not help thinking that the success of his proj 
ect would be the less uncertain, the farther from 
London that man should be. If news of the maid s 



JERNINGHAM SEES THE WAY, 241 

disappearance reached Ravenshaw s ears ere the ship 
was away beyond recall, things might go ill, for 
Ravenshaw knew whom to suspect. But to the 
lonely Grange, half-way between main road and river, 
reached by a solitary lane that led nowhere else, 
visited by no one, news never found its way. Once 
lodged there, Ravenshaw would stay till he gave up 
hope of receiving the further instructions which Jer 
ningham had said he would send ; and by that time 
Jerningham and the maid would be far beyond the 
swaggering captain s sword and his roar. The only 
fear was that Ravenshaw might have caught Gregory 
dogging him, and have thrown over the stewardship. 

But at length a quick step was heard, there was 
a tapping at the gate, Jerningham drew it open, and 
the captain stood before him. 

"Well, you have kept your word. Here is the 
horse." 

" A trim beast," quoth Ravenshaw, looking at the 
animal with approval, and not failing to note the good 
quality of the saddle. 

"He will scarce have a trim rider," said Jerning 
ham, staring at Ravenshaw s face and clothing. " You 
look as if one horse had already thrown you. What s 
the matter ? " 

" Oh, there has been a riot, which I must needs 
leave, that I might not be late with you," said Raven 
shaw, carelessly. 



242 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

The two gazed at each other a moment in silence, 
as they had done at a former interview. Jerningham 
looked for any sign of Ravenshaw s having detected 
Gregory s espionage, and found none. Ravenshaw 
waited for Jerningham to mention Gregory s en 
counter with him in the goldsmith s garden, assuming 
that Gregory must have reported it the previous night. 
It was not for Ravenshaw to introduce the subject ; 
so it was not introduced at all, and the captain 
mounted the horse. 

" You remember all I told you yesterday, no 
doubt ? " said Jerningham. " Touching the place 
you are going to, I mean." 

" Yes ; I shall find it easily enough. Ay, four 
o clock, I know. And particular instructions will 
come in a few days. I can wait for instructions 
while provisions last. But one thing a steward s 
chain good gold, look you ! " 

" It shall be of the best," replied Jerningham, with 
his strange smile. "When it comes," he said to 
himself, as the captain rode out of the gate. 

And the captain was saying to himself : " Either 
his knave has not told him, or he counts it of no 
matter. Ten to one, from his look, he is forging 
some plot against her ; but she will be safe from all 
plots this time to-morrow, I think." And he headed 
his horse for the Canterbury road. 

Jerningham went to his own chamber in Win- 



JERNINGHAM SEES THE WAY. 243 

Chester House, a fair room looking toward the church 
of St. Mary Overie. He had not been there a quarter 
of an hour, when to him came Gregory, dusty and 
tired, but eager-eyed. 

" What news ? " inquired the master, with simulated 
coldness. 

" An t please you, sir, I have stuck to his heels 
since you bade me. Twice they led me to that gold 
smith s house." 

" Ah ! What happened there ? Make short telling 
of it, knave ! " 

" The first time was last night. The maid talked 
with him alone in the garden. I could not hear what 
they said, until she called him by the name of Holy- 
day." 

"A false name. The rascal! then he has his 
plot, too ! " 

" Ay, sir ; and, thinking to nip it in the bud, I 
came forth and denounced him to her, saying he was 
Ravenshaw. Belike he spoke of it to you awhile 
ago." 

" Go on. What did the maid then ? " 

" She spurned him as he were kennel mud, and he 
came away like a whipped hound. But I had already 
given him the slip, to save my skin." 

" Troth, then, all betwixt her and him must have 
come to naught." 

" So one would think. And yet But you must 



244 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

know that I still dogged him, to carry out your full 
command. He kept me waiting outside many tav 
erns, but at last went into a house in Smithfield 
which I took to be his lodging for the night. Be 
thinking me of the danger if he chanced to see me 
by daylight, I went to a friend of mine in that 
neighbourhood a horse-stealer, if truth must be 
told and borrowed a false beard and a country 
man s russet coat. In these I followed the man when 
he set forth at daybreak with his companion, that 
lean young gentleman you saw with him in Paul s." 

"Oh, fewer words. What hath the lean young 
gentleman to do ?" 

" Much, I trow, an it please you. The end of 
their going about was, that the lean companion, 
under some pressure from the captain, went to the 
goldsmith s house, while the captain waited behind 
the cross in Cheapside, e en as I waited at the 
corner of Milk Street." 

Gregory then described the occurrences in front 
of the goldsmith s shop. What to think of the 
fight between Ravenshaw and the scholar, he knew 
not, whether it marked a falling out between them 
or was part of a plot. Jerningham was of opinion 
it was part of a plot. The serving-man told of Raven- 
shaw s flight into the shop from the apprentices. 

" They that ran after him," he continued, " came 
out presently, saying he must have fled by the back 



JERNINGHAM SEES THE WAY, 24$ 

way. I pushed through to Friday Street, and saw 
the gate indeed open. Methought he would now 
fain come to you, for shelter and protection ; and 
so I started hither. And lo ! at t other end of 
London Bridge, whom did I set eyes on but my 
captain, counting over money to another fellow of 
his own kind, but more scurvy. I kept out of sight 
till they parted, and then, while the captain crossed 
the bridge, I accosted the scurvy fellow and said 
there was one would deal with him as fairly as the 
captain had, if he chose." 

" Well, well, and what said he ? " 

" He was for killing me, at first, but the end of 
it was that he is now waiting for a word with you 
yonder at the bridge. We have seen the captain 
ride away, and all is safe. I took off my beard and 
russet gown in the lane without, and hid them in 
the stable." And the faithful rascal, with bowed 
head, watched narrowly for the look of approval 
to which he felt entitled. 

" You have done well, Gregory ; and you shall 
eat, drink, and sleep, to pay for your abstinence, 
but first come to the bridge and show me this man. 
And remember, if my Lord Bishop s servants are 
inquisitive, you lay at Deptford last night, as I did." 

A few minutes later Master Jerningham was in 
converse with Cutting Tom at the Southwark end 
of London Bridge, beneath the gate tower, on top 



246 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

of which was a forest of poles crowned with the 
weatherbeaten heads of traitors. 

" Oh, but sell secrets, that is too much ! " Cutting 
Tom was saying, in an injured tone. " A poor sol 
dier hath little but his honour. Belike I am ill- 
favoured with wounds, and ragged with poverty 
through serving my country, but my honour, sir ! 
my trust ! my loyalty ! Troth, tis mine only jewel, 
and if I sold it well, I should want a good price, 
and there s the hell of it ! " 

But even when a price was fixed, Cutting Tom, 
dazzled on one side by his lifetime s chance of 
obtaining so excellent a patron, on the other side 
fearful of Ravenshaw s vengeance, temporised and 
mumbled and held back, until Jerningham assured 
him of protection and of Ravenshaw s long absence 
from London. The rascal then told all he knew 
of what was planned to be carried out that night. 

Jerningham listened with apparent passivity, 
though at the last he averted his eyes lest his ex 
ultation should gleam out of them. Here was all 
trouble, all desperate and well-nigh impossible ven 
turing, made needless on his part. He studied the 
matter for a minute, and then said, musingly : 

" His companion and a maid the White Horse 
tis the nearest tavern sooth, there can be no 
question it is she. Look you, sirrah, I must know 
to what place they are bound." 



JERNINGHAM SEES THE WAY. 247 

" I would I knew. Tis somewhere on the Kent 
ish side of the river." 

"What, would the rascal dare? think you tis 
the place he is now riding to ? " 

"He said he would be in the neighbourhood of 
our destination, and he would come to-morrow to pay 
and dismiss us." 

"If he is to come to you to-morrow, it cannot be 
to the Grange, he will be there already. He 
knows more of that neighbourhood than he would 
have me think ; he used the name Holyday there s 
a Holyday family in that country. Well, I know 
not ; but tis certain you will be near my house of 
Marshleigh Grange." 

A grim smile flitted over Jerningham s face, as he 
saw another difficulty removed for he could now 
dispense with the use of the Dutch innkeeper at 
Blackwall, and with the risk of putting his captive 
aboard from so public a place. 

" Now mark," said he, while he held Cutting Tom 
with fixed eyes, " you will indeed have four men 
with you when you meet the gentleman and maid at 
the White Horse; but one of those four shall be 
a man I will send there betimes. You will easily 
know him ; he is the man that brought you to see 
me. His beard, you must know, is false, and you 
will warn your men ; else, detecting it, they might 
snatch it off in mirth. Without disguise, he would 



248 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

be known to the maid and gentleman, then our 
business were undone. And so, to the journey." 

Proceeding, he gave orders full and concise, to 
which Cutting Tom lent the best attention of his 
cunning mind. Then, being curtly dismissed, the 
rascal, between elation at his great windfall, and per 
turbation at the temerity of betraying Captain Raven- 
shaw, shambled off through the darkish lane that the 
rows of high shop-houses made of London Bridge. 

Master Jerningham, returning to Winchester 
House, was rejoined by Gregory at the place where 
the serving-man had waited. 

" You have five hours wherein to fill your stomach 
and sleep ; and then you must be off upon a night s 
work that shall make you your own man, if it turn 
out well." 

The zealous hound, a little staggered at the open 
ing words of this announcement, took fresh life at its 
conclusion, and looked with new-lighted eyes for 
commands. 

Having given these with the utmost particularity, 
Jerningham presented himself, in all docility and 
humbleness, to the bishop in the latter s study, 
where he made a careful tale of his readiness for 
sailing on the morrow. 

He then took horse for Deptford ; upon arriving, 
he related his good fortune, and set forth his new plan 
to Sir Clement Ermsby, on the deck of the ship. 



JERNINGHAM SEES THE WAY. 249 

" But how at the Grange, man, if Ravenshaw be 
there ? " Sir Clement asked. 

" I shall go there betimes, and send him straight 
upon some errand some three days journey that 
will not wait for daylight." 

" He will think it curiously sudden. Besides, if 
he thinks to meet and pay his men in that neigh 
bourhood to-morrow, he will not be for any three 
days journey to-night." 

" Most men will defer paying money, when their 
interests require. I can but try sending him." 

" And if he refuse to stir ? What will you then ? " 

" Kill him ! There will be enough of us, in good 
sooth." 

"Ay, no doubt," acquiesced Sir Clement, care 
lessly. " Methinks the weather bodes a change," he 
added, looking at the sky. "It may rain to-night." 

" Rain or shine, storm or fair," replied Master 
Jerningham, his eyes aglow, " I feel it within me, 
this is the night shall give me my desire." 



CHAPTER XV. 

RAVENSHAW FALLS ASLEEP. 

" Thou liest. I ha nothing but my skin, 
And my clothes ; my sword here, and myself." 

The Sea Voyage. 

CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW headed his horse for the 
Canterbury road, and, having soon left the town 
behind him, began to feel a pleasarrt content in the 
sunlight and soft air. The fresh green of spring, 
the flowers of May, the glad twitter of birds, met his 
senses on every side. Never since his boyhood had 
the sight and smell of hawthorn been more sweet. 
He conceived he had, for once, earned the right to 
enjoy so fair a day. He was tired and bruised, but 
he looked forward to rest upon his arrival. Peace, 
comparative solitude, country ease, seemed so invit 
ing that he had not a regret for the town he left 
behind. 

His road, at the first, was that which Chaucer s 
pilgrims had traversed blithely toward Canterbury. 
He had a few villages to ride through, clustered 
about gray churches, and drowsy in the spring sun 
shine ; a few towered and turreted castles, a few 
gabled farmhouses, to pass in sight of. But for the 

250 




" SUDDENLY THE NARROW WAY BEFORE HIM BECAME 
BLOCKED WITH HUMAN CREATURES," 



RA VENSHA W FALLS ASLEEP. 2$ I 

most part his way was by greenwood and field and 
common, up and down the gentle inclines, and across 
the pleasant levels, of the wavy Kentish country. 
Often it was a narrow aisle through forest, with 
great trunks for pillars, and leafy boughs for pointed 
arches, and here and there a yellow splash where 
the green leaves left an opening for sunlight. And 
then it trailed over open heath dotted with solitary 
trees or little clumps, and along fields enclosed by 
green hedgerows. It was a good road for that time, 
wide enough for two riders to pass each other with 
out giving cause for quarrel ; ditchlike, uneven, 
rutted, here so stony that a horse would stumble, 
there so soft that a horse would sink deep at each 
step. 

Ravenshaw had already turned out of the Canter 
bury road to the left, and was passing from a heath 
into a thick copse, when suddenly the narrow way 
before him became blocked with human creatures, 
or what seemed rather the remnants of human crea 
tures, that limped out from among the trees at the 
sides. 

He drew in his horse quickly to avoid riding over 
any one, while the newcomers thronged about him 
with outstretched palms and whining cries : 

" Save your good worship, one little drop of 
money!" "A small piece of silver, for the love 
of God ! " " Pity for a poor maimed soldier ! " 



252 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

"A few pence to buy bread, kind gentleman!" 
" Charity for the lame and blind ! " 

" Peace, peace, peace ! " cried the captain. " What 
be these the greenwood vomits up ? Hath the forest 
made a dinner of men, and cast up the pieces it could 
not stomach ? " 

Pieces of men in truth they looked, and of two 
women also. All were in rags; the men had un 
kempt beards and hair ; those that did not go upon 
crutches showed white eyes, or an empty sleeve, or 
great livid sores upon face and naked breast, or dis 
coloured bandages ; one of the women, fat and hoarse- 
voiced, went upon a single leg and a crutch ; the 
other woman, a gaunt hag, petitioned with one skinny 
hand, and pointed with the other to her colourless 
eyeballs. 

" Let go ; I am in haste ; I have no money," said 
Ravenshaw, for one of the men a white-bearded 
old fellow poised on his only foot had taken firm 
hold of the bridle near the horse s mouth. 

But, so far from the man s letting go, some of his 
companions seized upon Ravenshaw s ankles, and the 
chorus of whines waxed louder and more urgent. 
With his free hand he reached for his dagger ; but 
the lean woman, having already possessed herself of 
the handle, drew it from the sheath ere he knew what 
she was doing. He clapped his other hand to his 
sword-hilt ; but his fingers closed around the two 



RAVENSHAW FALLS ASLEEP. 253 

hands of a dwarf on a man s shoulders, who had 
grasped the hilt, and who now thrust his head for 
ward and caught the captain s knuckles between his 
jaws. 

" Oho ! " exclaimed Ravenshaw, changing to a 
jovial manner. " I see I have walked into Beggars 
Bush. Well, friends, I pray you believe me, I am a 
man wrung dry by war and ill fortune, and little less 
a beggar than any of ye. I have chanced upon a 
slight service will keep my body and soul together ; 
if I lose time here I shall lose that. I have nothing 
but my weapons, which I need in my profession, and 
my clothes, which would not serve you in yours. 
The horse I require for my necessary haste, and " 

" He lies, he lies ! " shrieked the lean hag, strik 
ing the pocket of Ravenshaw s breeches. " Hearken 
to the chinking lour ! A handful ! " 

" A piece of gold for a poor maimed soldier ! " 
cried the white-bearded man, whipping out a pistol 
from his wide breeches, whereupon other of the 
rogues brandished truncheons and staves. At sight 
of the clubs, Ravenshaw made a wry face, and his 
bruised body seemed to plead with him. He had 
one hand free, with which he might have seized the 
dwarf s neck, but he thought best to use it for hold 
ing the rein and guarding his pocket. 

"Ay, there s money in the pocket," he said ; "but 
I spoke truth when I said I had none. This is not 



254 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

mine ; tis another man s, to whom I must pay it 
to-morrow." 

" Let the other man give us charity, then ! " cried 
the fat woman. 

"Ay, we d as lief have another man s money as 
yours," said the white-bearded rogue, aiming the 
pistol. The lean hag tried to force her hand into 
Ravenshaw s pocket, and men caught his clothing by 
the hooks at the ends of their staves. 

" Nay, maunderers ! " cried Ravenshaw ; " shall 
not a gentry cove that cuts ben whids, and hath 
respect for the salamon, pass upon the pad but ye 
would be foisting and angling?" 

"Marry, you can cant," said the white-bearded 
beggar, his manner changing to one of approval, 
which spread at once to his associates. 

"As ben pedlar s French as any clapperdudgeon 
of ye all," replied the captain. 

" Belike you are a prigger of prancers," said the 
beggar, looking at the horse. 

" No, my upright man, a poor gentry cuffin, as I 
have said, but one that hath passed many a night out- 
of-doors, and now fallen into a little poor service that 
I am like to forfeit by my delay. As for the lour in 
my pocket, I am a forsworn man if I deliver it not 
to-morrow. So I beg, in the name of all the maun 
ders I have stood friend to in my time " 

"A ben cove," said the upright man. "Mort, 



RAVENSHAW FALLS ASLEEP. 2$$ 

take off your fambles ; brother rufflers, down with 
your filches and cudgels. By the salamon, the cant 
ing cuffin shall go free upon the pad." 

Released on every side, no more threatened, and 
his dagger restored to its sheath, the captain looked 
gratefully down upon the grotesque crew. As he 
did so, his nose became sensible of a faint, delicious 
odour, borne from a distance. He sniffed keenly. 

" Cackling-cheats," said the chief beggar. " Our 
doxies and dells are roasting em in a glade yonder. 
Plump young ones, and fresh. We niched em but 
last darkmans. We be toward a ben supper, and 
you are welcome, though we lack bouze." 

The captain sighed. He had not dined ; the fresh 
air of the country had whetted his stomach ; roast 
chickens were good eating, hot or cold ; and he had 
gathered, from the vague replies Jerningham had 
made to his inquiries about provisions, that his diet 
at the Grange would be a rather spare one of salt 
meat, stockfish, milk, and barley-cakes. 

"Alas, if I durst but tarry!" He looked to see 
how far behind him the sun was, and then shook his 
head and gathered up his reins. " I must hasten on 
tis a sweet smell of cookery, forsooth ! how 
soon, think you, will they be roasted ? " 

" Oh, half an hour, to be done properly." 

"Then I must e en thank ye, and ride on. I 
durst not " He broke off to sniff the air again. 



256 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

" Marry, I have a thought. You lack bouze, say you ? 
Now at the place whither I am bound, there is ale, or 
my gentleman has lied to me. I shall be in a sort 
the master there, with only a country wench and an 
old doting man Know you Marshleigh Grange? " 

"Ay," spoke up a very old cripple; "the lone 
house twixt the hills and the marshes ; there hath 
been no ben filching there this many a year ; the 
wild rogues pass it by as too far from the pads ; 
neither back nor belly-cheats to be angled there." 

Ravenshaw addressed himself again to the bearded 
chief of the beggars, received answer, passed a jovial 
compliment, and rode on alone in cheerful mood. In 
due time he turned into the by-road which accorded 
with Jerningham s description ; and at length, emerg 
ing from a woody, bushy tract, he came upon a 
lonely plain wherein the one object for the eye was 
a gray-brown house, huddled against barn and out 
buildings, at the left of the vanishing road, a house 
of timber and plaster, warped and weather-beaten, 
its cracked gables offering a wan, long-suffering 
aspect to the sun and breeze. This was the Grange. 

A short canter brought Ravenshaw to the rude 
wooden gate, studded with nails, in the stone wall 
that separated the courtyard from the road, which 
here came to an end. Ere the captain had time to 
knock, or cry " Ho, within ! " the gate swung inward 
on its crazy hinges, and a thin, bent old man, with 



RAVENSHAW FALLS ASLEEP. 

sparse white hair and blinking eyes, shambled for 
ward to take the horse. At the same time, as 
further proof that Ravenshaw had been looked for, 
a woman appeared in the porched doorway of the 
house, and called out : 

"Jeremy will see to your horse. Come within." 

Ravenshaw looked at her with a little surprise ; 
this robust, erect, full-coloured, well-shaped crea 
ture, upon whom common rustic clothes took a 
certain grace, and whose head stood back in the 
proud attitude natural to beauty, was scarce the 
country wench he had expected to meet. But he 
said nothing, and followed her into the hall. This 
was a wide, high apartment of some pretension, its 
ceiling, rafters, and walls being of oak. Bare enough, 
it yet had the appearance of serving as the chief 
living-room of the occupants of the house. Upon an 
oak table, at which was an old chair, stood a flagon 
of wine and some cakes. Meg offered Ravenshaw 
this repast by a gesture, while she scrutinised him 
with interest. 

"Wine?" quoth he, promptly setting to. " Tis 
more than I had thought to find." 

" There is some left since the time when when 
Master Jerningham used to come to the Grange 
oftener," said Meg. "Ale serves for me and old 
Jeremy." 

" Troth your health, mistress ! I am glad you 



258 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

have ale in store. Would there be enough to enter 
tain a few guests withal some dozen or score poor 
friends of mine, if they were travelling this way ? 
To tell the truth, I should not like to waste this wine 
upon such." 

" Travellers never pass this way," said Meg, plainly 
not knowing what to make of him. 

" Oh, we are some way from the highroad here, in 
deed ; but a foolish friend or so might turn out a 
mile for the pleasure of my company." 

" I know not what you d set before em to eat, if 
there were a dozen." 

" Marry, they would have to bring eatables with 
em, my reason for having em as guests. Only 
so there be ale enough." 

" Oh, there is ale," said Meg, without further 
comment. 

Ravenshaw, munching the cakes, and oft wetting 
his throat, looked around the hall. The front door 
way faced a wide fireplace at the rear, now empty. 
At the right was a door to a small apartment, a kind 
of porter s room, lighted by a single high narrow 
window ; farther back in the hall was the entrance 
to a passage communicating with other parts of the 
house ; and still farther back, a door leading to the 
kitchen. At the left hand were, first, a door to a 
large room, and, second, the opening to a passage 
like that on the right. 



FALLS ASLEEP. 2 59 

By way of this left-hand passage, and a narrow 
staircase which led from it, the captain was presently 
shown by old Jeremy to his chamber. It was large 
and bare, hung with rotten arras, and contained a 
bed, a joint-stool, and a table with ewer and basin ; 
its window looked into the courtyard. 

He flung his bruised body on the bed, and soon 
sank deliciously to sleep. 

Meanwhile old Jeremy, returning to the hall, found 
Meg sitting with her chin upon her hands, and gaz 
ing into the empty fireplace. 

"A sturdy fellow," whispered the old man, point 
ing backward with his thumb, and taking on a jocular 
air. " Cast eyes on him ; a goodly husband mends 
all ; cast eyes on him ! &gt;J 

" Thou rt a fool ; go thy ways ! " quoth Meg ; but 
she did not move. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

THE POET AS A MAN OF ACTION. 

" O father, where s my love ? were you so careless 
To let an un thrift steal away your child ? " 

The Case Is A Itered. 

MILLICENT, after the riot had ceased and dinner 
had been eaten, passed the day with a palpitating 
heart but a resolved mind. Under cover of her 
usual needlework, she fashioned a sort of large linen 
wallet, in which to carry the few things she wished 
to take with her. Her emotions were, in a less de 
gree, similar to those which had affected her in the 
hours preceding her former attempt to run away. 
At supper she looked often with a hidden tenderness 
at the composed, unsuspecting face of her mother. 
When the light of evening faded she slipped to her 
chamber, and put a few chosen objects into the 
receptacle she had made, wrapped this in a hooded 
cloak, and dropped it from her window into the 
concealed space behind the garden shrubbery. She 
then waited, watching from the window that part 
of Friday Street in which Master Holyday must 
appear. 

260 



THE POET AS A MAN OF ACTION. 26 1 

At last his slender figure lurched into view in the 
dusk, and came to a stop outside the gate. 

Millicent sped across her chamber. At the door 
she turned, with fast-beating heart, and cast an affec 
tionate, tearful look at the place in which she had 
spent so much of her childhood and youth, and which 
seemed to share so many of her untold thoughts. It 
appeared for an instant to reproach her sorrowfully ; 
but when in her swift thought she justified her 
action, its aspect changed to that of wishing her 
Godspeed, and counselling her to hasten. 

She hurried through the house as if upon some 
indoor quest, found herself alone in the garden, re 
covered her cloak and parcel, and went to unfasten 
the gate. 

" Tis I, Master Holyday," she said, in a low tone, 
as she loosened the bolt. 

" Good ! good ! excellent ! " came the scholar s 
reply from outside the gate, in a voice rather 
parched and excited. 

Having slid back the bolt, she made to pull the 
gate open, but it would not move. 

"What is the matter?" quoth she. "I cannot 
open it. Push it from your side." 

She heard his hands laid against it, then his 
shoulder, then his back. But it would not budge. 
She examined it closely in the dusky light, and sud 
denly gave a little cry of despair. 



262 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

" Oh, me ! There is a new lock on the gate, and 
God knows where is the key ! " 

During the afternoon, in fact, Master Etheridge, 
alarmed by the easy entrance obtained by Raven- 
shaw and Gregory the previous night, and by 
Ravenshaw s exit from the garden that day, an 
exit after which the gate had been left open, had 
caused an additional lock to be put on, a lock to be 
opened by means of a key which the goldsmith 
thought best to keep in his own care. 

"Oh, what shall I do?" she cried, after a futile 
tug at the lock. 

" Is there no other way to come out ? " queried 
Holyday, in perturbation. 

" Alas, no ! There s the street door from the gal 
lery, but my father locks it himself at supper-time 
and keeps the key. I durs n t go through the^shop ; 
if it isn t closed, my father may be in the back shop 
and the apprentices will surely be in front." 

"God s name, I know not what " began the 
poet, agitated with perplexity and fear of failure, 
but broke off to " Can t you make another pretext 
to go out ? drop another wedding-ring into the 
street, or something?" 

" Nay, they would sure stop my going or follow 
me out at this hour. Oh, would I could leap the 
wall ! By St. Anne, tis too bad Ha ! wait a 
minute." 



THE POET AS A MAN OF ACTION. 263 

Under the impulse of her thought she sped away 
without listening for answer, unconscious that her 
last words had been spoken too low to go beyond the 
gate. 

Hence she did not know that Master Holyday, 
attacked by an idea at the same moment, and ex 
pressing himself with equal inaudibility, had as sud 
denly made off toward the White Horse Tavern. 

She was in the house ere it occurred to her that 
she ought to have rid herself of her burden by throw 
ing it over the wall. She thought best not to retrace 
her steps. So she ran up-stairs and along the pas 
sage to a small window that looked down on Friday 
Street. She pushed open the casement, saw that no 
one was passing below, and dropped the parcel, trust 
ing it to the darkness. She had a moment s idea of 
calling to Holyday to come and take it, but a second 
thought was wiser ; she cast a single glance toward 
the gate, but was uncertain whether she made out 
his form or not in the decreasing light. Then she 
went down-stairs, and boldly into the back shop. 
Her father sat at his small table counting by 
candle-light the day s money. 

" Eh ! what is it ? " he asked, looking sharply up. 
" What dost thou here, baggage ? " 

" I have an order for George," she replied, quietly, 
forcing her voice to steadiness, and praying that her 
throbbing heart and pale face might not betray her. 



264 CAPTAIN RA VENSHA W. 

George was an apprentice whom, for his cleverness, 
Mistress Etheridge was wont to employ on errands. 
Millicent could see him now in the outer shop, busy 
with other apprentices in covering the cases and 
closing up the front. 

" Zooks ! " grumbled the goldsmith ; "thy mother 
would best take the lad for a page, and be done 
with it." 

Millicent passed on to the front shop. 

"George," said she, when out of her father s 
hearing, but in that of one or two of the other 
apprentices, " you are to come with me to Mistress 
Carroll s next door ; there is something to fetch back. 
Nay, wait till you have done here ; I ll run ahead, tis 
but a step." 

Upon the hazard that her father, in the rear shop, 
would not lift up his eyes from his money for some 
little time, she passed out to Cheapside. In a breath 
she was around the corner, from the crowd and the 
window-lights, into the dusk and desertion of Friday 
Street. She stooped and picked up her cloak and 
bag ; then ran on, to the gate. 

" Speed ! speed ! there s not a moment to lose ! " 
she whispered, catching the elbow of the man who 
stood there, and who had not heard her coming 
swiftly up behind him. 

He turned and stared, putting his eyes close to 
hers on account of the darkness ; she saw that lie 



THE POET AS A MAN OF ACTION. 2^: 

had a great, scarred, bearded face, and that his body 
was twice the breadth of Master Holyday* s. 

" Oh, God ! " she exclaimed, drawing back. " I 
thought you were Master Holyday." 

" Master Holyday, eh ? " growled the man. " What 
of him ? " 

"I I was to meet him here," she faltered, look 
ing around with a sinking heart. 

" Oh ! God s light ! you are the maid, be 
like ? Well, troth, beshrew me but that s the 
hell of it ! " And the fellow grinned with silent 
laughter. 

" What mean you ? What maid ? Know you 
aught ? " 

"Of Master Holyday? Sooth, do I! He s on 
t other side of this gate." 

She stared at the closed gate in bewilderment. 
" What ? In the garden ? " 

"Ay, in the garden." The man raised his voice a 
little. Sure thou rt there, Master Holyday ? " 

" Ay," came the reply in the scholar s unmistak 
able voice. " But the maid is not. Hang her, 
whither is she gone ? " 

" Here I am," answered the maid, for herself. 
" In God s name, how got you in there ? " 

" In God s name, how got you out there ? " said 
Holyday, vexatiously. "A minute ago you were 
here, and I v;as there. You could not come out, so 



266 CAPTAIN RAVZNStfAW. 

I went for this gentleman, who lifted me to the top 
of the wall " 

" Which was a service not included in the con 
tract," remarked Cutting Tom. 

" And here I dropped, thinking to find you," 
continued Holyday, in exasperation, "and to help you 
out as he helped me in. And now " 

" Well, I am out, nevertheless," she replied, 
quickly. " So come you out, pray, without more 
ado ; my father may discover at any moment " 

" Why, devil take me ! " cried Holyday, in despair. 
" I cannot climb the wall ; there s none here to give 
me a shoulder." 

" Is there nothing there you can climb upon ? " 
queried Cutting Tom. 

" Yes," cried Millicent, taking the answer upon 
herself ; " there are benches. Oh, pray, make haste, 
Master Holyday ! " 

Soon Master Holyday could be heard dragging a 
bench across the sward ; in its ordinary position 
it would not give him sufficient height, so he 
seemed to busy himself in placing it properly for 
his purpose. " Nomine patris ! " he exclaimed as he 
bruised his fingers. Finally a thud against the 
upper part of the gate indicated that he had 
fixed the bench slantwise. Mounting the incline 
chiefly by means of hands and knees, he stood 
trembling at the top, high enough to get a purchase 



THE POET AS A MAN OF ACTION. 267 

of his elbows on the gate, and so to wriggle his body 
over. 

Millicent breathed more freely as soon as his head 
and shoulders appeared ; but, as he was righting him 
self on the gate-top in order to drop safely outside, 
there came a voice from within the garden : 

" Hey ? How now ? Good lack, more comings 
and goings ! " 

"Oh, God! that meddling Sir Peregrine!" cried 
Millicent. "We are found out. Hurry, Master 
Holyday ! " 

The poet, startled, was still upon the gate, staring 
back into the garden. With a revival of earlier 
agility, the old knight came up the sloping bench at 
a run, took hold of the gate s top with one hand, and 
of Master Holyday s neck with the other. His eyes 
fell upon the pair waiting outside. It was not too 
dark for him to recognise a figure which he had oft 
observed with the interest of future ownership. 

"What! Mistress Millicent! And who s this? 
Master Holyday, o my life ! Zooks and zounds ! 
here s doings ! " 

The poet, suddenly alive, jerked his neck from the 
old knight s grasp, and threw himself from the gate 
without thought of consequences. Luckily, Tom 
caught him by the body, and saved his neck, though 
both men were heavily jarred by the collision. 

" Come ! " cried Millicent, seizing Holyday by the 



268 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

sleeve ere he had got his balance. She darted down 
Friday Street, the poet staggering headlong after 
her, Cutting Tom close in the rear. 

"What, ho!" cried Sir Peregrine, astonished out 
of his wits. " Stop ! stay ! The watch ! constables ! 
Master Etheridge ! Runaways, runaways, runaways ! " 

His voice waned in the distance behind Millicent 
as she hastened on. She still held the poet s sleeve ; 
he breathed fast and hard, but said nothing. In 
front of the White Horse, four men, at a gruff word 
from Cutting Tom, fell in with the fugitives, and the 
whole party of seven ran on without further speech. 
For a short time, tramping and breathing were the 
only sounds in Millicent s ears ; but soon there came 
a renewed and multiplied cry of " Runaways ! stop 
them ! " whereby she knew that Sir Peregrine had 
given the alarm, and that her father and his lads had 
started in pursuit. 

" God send we get to the boat in time ! " she said, 
as she halted for a single step so that Master Holy- 
day might take the lead. She cast a swift look over 
her shoulder, and saw two or three torches flaring in 
the distance. 

Holyday led across Knightrider Street obliquely, 
then down the lower part of Bread Street, along a 
little of Thames Street, and through a short passage 
to Queenhithe. This wharf enclosed three sides 
of a somewhat rounded basin, wherein a number of 



THE POET AS A MAN OF ACTION. 269 

craft now lay at rest in the black water that lapped 
softly as stirred by the tide and a light wind. 
Houses were built close together on all three sides. 

The poet made straight along the east side of the 
basin, and down a narrow flight of stairs to a large 
boat that lay there. A man started up in the boat, 
and held out his hand to help the maid aboard, light 
ing her steps with a lantern in his other hand, for 
a veil of clouds had swept across the sky from the 
west, and the only considerable light upon the wharf 
was from a lantern before one of the gabled houses, 
and from the lattice windows of a tavern. Other 
boatmen steadied the vessel, so that Millicent 
boarded without accident ; Holyday, coming next, 
and setting foot blindly upon the gunwale, rather 
fell than stepped in. Cutting Tom and his men hud 
dled aboard, and the whole party crowded together 
astern, to leave room forward for the rowers. 

" Whither ? " asked the waterman in command. 

"Why, down-stream, of course," replied Holyday. 
" Know you not how now ? Where is Bill 
Tooby ? " 

"Bill Tooby? He is yonder in his boat, waiting 
for some that have bespoke him." The man pointed 
across the basin. 

Holyday was stricken faint of voice. "Oh, 
miserere!" he wailed. "He is waiting for us. 
We have come to the wrong stairs." 



270 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

" Hark ! " cried Millicent. 

Cries of " Runaways ! Stop them ! Stop the 
maid ! " were approaching from, apparently, the 
vicinity of Knightrider Street. 

"We must e en change to the other boat," said 
Holyday, despairingly. 

" Oh, heaven, there is not time ! " cried Millicent. 

" If you be in haste," said the waterman, " stay 
where ye are. Whither shall we carry ye ? " 

" Nay, nay, I durst not ! " cried Holyday, and yet 
stood in helpless indecision. 

" Come, then ! " said Millicent, and leaped from 
the boat to the stairs. Reaching back for Holyday s 
hand, she pulled him after her, dragged him up the 
steps, and led him around the three sides of the 
basin, their five protectors following close. 

A larger boat, manned with a more numerous 
crew, was in waiting at the western stairs. The 
waterman with whom Ravenshaw had bargained in 
the morning, making sure of Holyday s face in the 
light of a lantern, guided the fugitives aboard with 
orderly swiftness. But already the noise of pursuit 
was in Thames Street ; ere the last man a slim 
fellow with a thickly bearded face, which he carried 
well forward from his body was embarked, the 
cries, swelling suddenly as the pursuers emerged 
from the narrow passage, were upon the wharf, 
and the red flare of torches came with them. 



THE POET AS A MAN OF ACTION. 2JI 

The party in chase was headed by the gold 
smith himself, no covering on his head, his gray 
hair standing out in the breeze ; then came his 
apprentices, and sundry persons who had joined in 
the hue and cry ; the rear was brought up by Sir 
Peregrine, lamed and winded. Master Etheridge 
made out the party in the boat at once, and, with 
threatening commands to the waterman to stop, led 
his people around to the stairs. 

"Cast off!" growled Bill Tooby, the waterman, 
pulling the slim fellow aboard. The order was 
obeyed, and Millicent, who had sat more dead than 
alive since her father had come into sight, saw 
the wharf recede, and a strip of black water spread 
between the boat and the torch-lit party that stood 
gazing from the stairs. 

" Oh, wench, I ll make thee rue this day ! " cried 
the goldsmith, shaking his arms after the boat. As 
for Sir Peregrine, he looked utterly nonplussed. 

Then her father spoke hurriedly to his followers, 
and called loudly for a boat. The waterman to 
whom Holy day had first led his own party was quick 
to respond. Meanwhile Tooby s craft headed down 
stream. Millicent, looking anxiously back over the 
water, saw the other boat, or its lantern and one of 
the torches, shoot out from the stairs. 

"Think you they will catch us?" she asked Mas 
ter Holyday. 



2/2 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

" I think nothing," said the poet, dejectedly, 
really thinking very small of himself for the mistake 
which had enabled the goldsmith to come upon their 
heels. 

Surprised at the apparent change in Master Holy- 
day since the forenoon, she turned to Tooby. " What 
think you, waterman ? " 

" Why, mistress, an they make better speed than 
we, belike they ll catch us ; but, an we make better 
speed than they, belike they ll not catch us," growled 
Tooby. 

" And that s the hell of it ! " quoth Cutting Tom. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

DIRE THINGS BEFALL IN THE FOREST. 

" Mistress, it grows somewhat pretty and dark. 
What then ? 

Nay, nothing. Do not think I am afraid, 
Although perhaps you are. " Beggars Bush. 

THE two large boats were not alone upon the 
river. Here and there, in the distance, moved 
the tiny lights of a wherry carrying a benighted 
fare ; and up toward the palaces and Westminster 
more than one cluster of lanterns and torches swept 
along, where some party of ladies and gentlemen 
were rowed to a mask or other revels. From one 
such company the western breeze brought the strains 
of guitars ; Bill Tooby and his comrades, infected 
with the spirit of melody, began to sing " Heave and 
ho, rumbelow," in deep voices, in time with the 
movement of their bodies. 

Along the northern bank of the river, where 
the dwellings and warehouses of merchants rose 
like a wall from the water s edge, the dim lights of 
windows ran in a straggling, interrupted line. Far 
ther west, where the river washed the stairs to 
the gardens of the great Strand residences and 

273 



2/4 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

of the Temple, there were scarce any lights at 
all. On the south bank, a few glowing windows 
marked the row of taverns and other houses many 
of them of questionable repute which, set back 
a little from the river, concealed the bear-gardens 
and playhouses in the fields behind. But soon, as 
the boat sped down-stream, the buildings on that 
bank were flush with the shore, save where Winches 
ter House showed a few lighted windows beyond its 
terrace. Little did Millicent imagine that anything 
bearing upon her destiny had ever been spoken or 
thought on that terrace or in that house. In front, 
spanning the river, another irregular row of window 
lights indicated the tall, close-built houses of London 
Bridge ; and the roar of the water, first dammed by 
the piers and then falling in a kind of cataract 
through the twenty arches, was already loud in 
the ears. 

Millicent kept her eyes on the lights of the boat 
behind, only two lights, a lantern at the prow, and 
a torch held by some one near the stern. They 
came steadily on, seeming neither to lose nor gain. 
Suddenly she lost sense of them ; but that was when 
her own boat plunged into one of the arches of the 
bridge, and seemed to be gulped down by a blacker 
night, a chill air, and a thunderous noise. Forward 
and slightly downward the boat flung itself, as if into 
some gulf of the underworld, but all of a sudden it 



DIRE THINGS BEFALL IN THE FOREST. 2/5 

was out again in the soft air and the calm water, and 
Millicent, looking up, saw the lit windows of the 
eastern side of the bridge. She continued gazing 
back, and very soon the two lights, the little yellow 
one and the trailing red one, came into view between 
the piers, still in pursuit at the same distance. 

" They don t gain upon us," growled Cutting Tom, 
with a desire of making himself agreeable to the 
maid. 

" But they do not lose," said Millicent, in a troubled 
tone. 

"Why, sooth, an they still gain not, tis sure 
they ll ne er catch us." 

" But they can see where we land," said she, " and 
they can land there, too, and so follow us to the end." 

"Then we can e en teach em better manners," 
said Tom, grandly. " I d as lief split a throat this 
night as another." 

" Oh, no ; in heaven s name, no ! " she cried. 
"We must escape them without that. No blows, 
I beg of you, whate er befall ! " 

" Yet you see how they stick to our heels. How 
is it, waterman ? Shall we not give em the slip 
soon ? " 

"Belike, and belike not," replied Tooby. "We 
can do our best, no more." 

Suddenly Master Holyday, thinking in some man 
ner to redeem himself, had an inspiration. 



2/6 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

" How if they couldn t see to follow us ? " he 
asked, abruptly. " How if we put out our lights and 
went on in the dark ? " 

" Not for ten pound a minute," said Tooby, 
" would I row without lights, a night like this. Tis 
bad enow as it is, with all the ships and small boats 
lying in the Pool here. E en with our lanterns, we 
shall do well an we bump not our nose." 

There was a silence, broken only by the plash of 
the oars, the creak of the rowlocks, the strange 
noises of the river, the lessening sound of what an 
obscure dramatist of those days describes as 

" The bridge s cataracts, and such-like murmurs 
As night and sleep yield from a populous number." 

" But I will e en try something better," added 
Tooby, presently, and forthwith gave an inaudible 
order to his men. 

They instantly stopped rowing, and even proceeded 
to stay the boat s movement with the current, so 
that it remained almost stationary. 

Millicent cried out in alarm as the lights behind 
came rapidly nearer. 

" Peace, mistress," said Tooby. " There will be 
no blood spilled." He then spoke in a low tone to 
the men in the bow, and himself strode to the stern, 
where he stood with his long arms slightly crooked 
at the elbows as if to be in readiness for action. 



DIRE THINGS BEFALL IN THE FOREST. 2JJ 

Swiftly the other boat came alongside. Millicent, 
holding her breath, wondering what was about to 
occur, made out her father bending forward in the 
attitude of one ready to grasp and punish. The 
torch revealed Sir Peregrine also, limply huddled up 
so that his beard was between his knees, and two 
of the apprentices, one of whom held the torch. 

" Ay, thou dost well to yield, wench ! " spake the 
goldsmith, in tones so wrathful as rather to contra 
dict his words. 

"Ay, chick," called out Sir Peregrine, reassuringly, 
" no need to run away from me ; I ll give thee no 
cause for jealousy, I promise thee." 

Master Etheridge stood up to reach out for his 
daughter. She had a fearful thought that Tooby 
had chosen to betray her. But at the same instant 
Tooby, leaning over to the other boat, violently 
struck the torch-bearing apprentice s hand, and 
deftly caught the torch away. She heard a slight 
crash forward ; and then her own boat shot through 
the water, leaving the other in complete darkness, 
one of Tooby s men having knocked the lantern 
from its prow with an oar. 

Millicent gave a quick breath of relief and put on 
her cloak ; but then she thought of the other boat s 
danger of running into something, or of being run 
down itself, and of this she spoke. 

" Never fear," said Tooby. " He ll no more ven- 



278 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

ture in the dark than I would. We ll fast put yon 
ship s hull twixt them and us, and be out of their 
ken ere ever they can get a light. And now pull, 
hearts, for the honour of watermen ! " 

Soon the lights on the left bank, becoming fewer, 
took such height and shape that Millicent knew her 
boat was passing the Tower. Somewhere there the 
water plashed against the underground stairs of 
Traitors Gate, that arched cavern which had lifted 
its iron door often in nights as dark as this, to admit 
some noble prisoner whose face, redly pale in the 
torchlight, betokened a heart chilled with a feeling 
that those damp walls formed a vestibule of death. 
Master Holyday, for all that was upon his mind, 
thought of these things, and of much else in the 
night-clad surroundings ; but Millicent kept her eyes 
fixed on the darkness behind, alert for any moving 
light that might appear in chase. 

None such appeared; and by the time the boat 
had traversed the city of great ships, and had come 
to where the lights upon the banks were few, and 
the mysterious noises of the town had given place to 
those of the country, she had cast away all fear of 
danger from behind. 

At Deptford they passed one ship, of which Milli 
cent took no more note than she took of any other of 
the countless vessels whose lights dotted the gloom 
around her that night ; but on which she might have 



DIRE THINGS BEFALL IN THE FOREST, 2/9 

bestowed a second look had she known all that was 
to be known. 

The tide, the current, and the wind being with the 
rowers, it seemed not long till Tooby hinted that 
Master Holyday would do well to keep his eyes open 
for the place of landing. The scholar, scanning the 
blue-black darkness in perplexity, said that he could 
not for his life see anything of the shore. Tooby 
asked him whether he knew the different landmarks 
by name. The scholar was acquainted with those 
in the neighbourhood of where they should land. 
Thenceforth the waterman called out the name of 
each village, wharf, riverside tavern, hill, tributary, or 
well-known country-seat, the contents of the darkness 
being known to him perhaps by his sense of distance, 
perhaps by reference to some far-off light, perhaps 
sometimes by the smell of marsh or wood. Holyday 
began to recognise the names ; and at last told the 
waterman to put ashore at the mouth of a certain 
creek. 

The boat glided along a low bank and stopped. 
Tooby, standing up, held out his lantern to show 
where there was safe footing. Master Holyday, 
leaping out too hastily,, alighted up to his knees in 
water. Millicent, aided by the waterman s hand, 
stepped ashore. Cutting Tom and his men lost no 
time. Ere it seemed possible, the lights of the boat 
were moving swiftly away. Its departure, and espe- 



280 CAPTAIN RA VENSHA W. 

cially that of Tooby, left Millicent with a sudden 
pang of loneliness and misgiving. But she reflected 
that the last stage of her flight was reached ; taking 
new heart, she grasped Holyday s sleeve, and waited 
to be led. 

The party had two lanterns and a torch, all which 
had been lighted in the boat. Cutting Tom assigned 
one lantern to Holyday, the other to the slim fellow 
with the projecting head, the torch to himself. The 
poet, with a deep sigh, and craning his neck to 
peer into the mysterious blackness beyond the little 
area of feeble light, started forward ; Millicent 
clung to his elbow ; Cutting Tom placed himself at 
her other side, and the four men followed close. 

The walkers proceeded slowly, Master Holyday 
having often to stop to ascertain his way. At first 
the turf under them was springy, then it became 
softer, and sometimes one s foot would sink into a 
tiny pool ; then the ground became higher, and pres 
ently they entered a wood. This seemed intermi 
nable ; not only was poor Master Holyday compelled 
to pause every minute to identify his whereabouts 
but also the protruding roots, fallen boughs, and 
frequent underbrush made every step a matter of 
care. 

As they moved their torch and lanterns, so the 
light and shadow constantly moved about them ; 
trunks and boughs, bush and brake, would suddenly 



DIRE THINGS BEFALL IN THE FOREST. 28 1 

appear and as quickly vanish as the yellow rays 
swung here and there. The breeze rustled unceas 
ingly among the leaves, and the air was pleasant with 
forest odours. Millicent s fancy peopled the shades 
with sleeping giants, goblins, witches, dragons, and all 
the creatures of the old tales of fairies and knights 
errant. She thought a similar terror must have 
come upon the others ; her companion hesitated so 
when he strove to pierce the shadows with wide-open 
eyes ; and Cutting Tom kept so close to her ; while 
one of the men had stepped up to the other side of 
Holvday and tightly grasped his arm. 

" Tis a weary journey, mistress," complained the 
poet. 

"Nay, I find it pleasant sport," said she, feeling 
that one of the two must show a light heart. Holy- 
day s manner all evening had been so at variance 
with his readiness to fight a dangerous man some 
hours earlier, that she made no attempt to understand 
the alteration ; she merely attended to the need of 
keeping up his spirits, though her own heart faltered. 
But she could not help adding : " Is there much more 
of this wood to go through ? " 

" More than I wish there were," replied Holyday. 

They went some distance farther in silence. Then 
the slim fellow with a lantern suddenly gave two 
coughs. Instantly Cutting Tom gripped Millicent s 
arm, stood still, and said to Holyday : 



282 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

" A plague on your eyes, sir ! you are leading us 
the wrong way." 

Holyday, stopping perforce with all the rest, re 
plied, in amazement : " Tis the right way ; I have 
come by this path to fish in the Thames a hundred 
times." 

" Poh ! fish me no fish, sir ! " cried Cutting Tom, 
while the slim lantern-bearer strode around to the 
front. "Am I to be led astray, and this maid here, 
for your designs ? You have dragged us too long 
through this cursed wood and that s the hell of it ! " 

" Tis the right way, I tell yon," said Holyday ; 
"and how can you say otherwise, when you know 
not whither we are bound ? " 

" But I do know whither we are bound and 
that s the hell of it ! " 

" I begin to think you are an impudent fellow," 
quoth Holyday, momentarily reckless through loss of 
patience; "and that s the hell of it, in your Bedlam 
gibberish ! " 

" Death ! " bellowed Cutting Tom ; " hell of it 
belongs to me ; no man in England dare steal my 
speech ! " 

He handed his torch to one of the men, ran at the 
scholar, dealt him a blow between the eyes, seized 
his lantern, and dragged Millicent away, motioning 
the slim knave to lead on. The knave took a direc 
tion leftward from their former one. 



DIRE THINGS BEFALL IN THE FOREST. 283 

" What mean you ? " cried the maid, trying to 
release herself. " I ll not leave Master Holyday." 

One of the men caught her by the free arm, and 
she was borne away by him and Cutting Tom. Glanc 
ing back, she saw that the two remaining men, one 
of whom had quickly stuck the torch in the ground, 
were grappling with Holyday, who was struggling 
between them. 

" In God s name, what would you do ? " Millicent 
cried, as her captors hastened on at the heels of the 
new guide. 

The men vouchsafed no answer. After a little 
while, at a word from Cutting Tom, they stopped 
and waited. Tom gave a whistle, which was answered 
from the direction whence they had last come, 
evidently by one of the men who had remained with 
Holyday. Being at intervals repeated, and answered 
at lessening distances, the whistle proved to be for 
the purpose of guiding these two men. Soon they 
appeared with the torch, but without Holyday. 

" Oh, heaven ! what have you done with him ? " 
cried Millicent, turning cold. 

" Only lightened him of these, lady," said one of 
the twain, indicating a bundle of clothing under his 
arm. 

"And left him tied safe to a tree, lest he roam 
about i the dark and do himself an injury," quoth 
the other. 



284 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

" Come," said Tom, tightening his grasp on the 
girl s arm. The guide moved on, and the party 
made haste through the forest. 

" Whither are you taking me ? " Millicent asked, 
tearfully, but got no reply. Wondering and ap 
palled, scarce believing she was herself, oft doubting 
the reality of this strange journey, she walked as she 
was compelled. 

At last they came out of the wood and made their 
way over a flat, heathy plain. It seemed to Milli 
cent that they had worked back to the neighbourhood 
of the river. Cutting Tom grew impatient, muttered 
to himself, and presently asked : " How far now ? " 

" Tis straight before us," said the guide, in a voice 
muffled as if by the heavy beard that covered his 
face. 

A narrow rift in the clouds let through a moment s 
moonlight ; Millicent had a brief vision of lonely 
country, with a little cluster of gables ahead ; then 
all was blotted out in thicker darkness. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

RAVENSHAW S SLEEP IS INTERRUPTED. 
" Captain, rally up your rotten regiment, and begone." A King and No King. 

MASTER JERNINGHAM, having communicated his 
good hopes to Sir Clement Ermsby on the deck of 
his ship, considered that, as the maid was not to 
leave London till nightfall, and, as he was now be 
tween London and the Grange, he had ample time to 
reach his country-house and send away the captain 
ere she could be brought there by her escort. He 
therefore resolved to proceed with leisure and order. 
And first, as he had long fasted, and as he had a 
night s business before him, he went ashore to his 
accustomed tavern at Deptford, and had supper with 
Sir Clement in a room where they were alone. 

" We shall take one of our own boats and four of 
our men," said Jerningham, "and row down to the 
old landing at the Grange. Tis but a short walk 
thence to the house. You and two of the men 
would best wait without the house, whilst I go in 
and send away Ravenshaw. If he saw you and so 
many men he might smell some extraordinary busi- 

285 



286 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

ness, and have the curiosity to set himself against 
my orders." 

" If he should do so, nevertheless," said Ermsby, 
"then, as you said awhile ago You may want 
our help in that." 

" Then I must e en call you. But I shall try to 
have him without his weapons." 

" What would Mistress Meg say to another ghost 
in the house ? " 

" Hang her, mad wench ! Ay, she would be howl 
ing of murder and blood. I know not she might 
fly to my lord bishop with the news. Well, I can 
tie her up and lock her in a chamber, at the worst. 
Yet she is a very devil. I think I d best breed no 
more trouble at the last. I ll not have the knave 
killed unless he cannot be got away otherwise." 

"An you send him away, will you leave some one 
in his place ? " 

"Ay, to keep Meg quiet till we are safe at sea. 
I ll leave Meadows, and charge him not to tell her 
of our sailing. He is a trusty fool." 

" But what will she say to this goldsmith s wench 
being housed overnight in the Grange ? " 

"Why, I ll have a tale ready when we arrive: 
that I am saving the maid from a runaway marriage, 
to take back to her father ; or that the maid is for 
you ; or some such story." 

"Best say the maid is for me. Women Avho 



RAVENSHAW S SLEEP IS INTERRUPTED. 287 

have gone that road are ever ready to push others 
into it." 

" Not always. But I shall contrive to make Meg 
tolerate the other s presence for a few hours, e en 
if I must do it with promises. I can offer to find 
her a husband, this Ravenshaw, an she like his 
looks, or another that may be bought. I think she 
has grown out of her sulks, and into the hope of 
rehabilitation, by this time. As for the Cheapside 
maid, first I will try wooing ; she may be compliant 
of her own accord. But if she hold out, there s 
nothing for it but the sleeping potion. Gregory 
will fetch that with him ; I bade him get it in Buck- 
lersbury on his way to Friday Street." 

" May it give her pleasant dreams ! " 

" When she is fast asleep," continued Jerningham, 
" I ll leave Gregory to watch her, and we ll come 
back to welcome my lord bishop in the morning. 
And to-morrow, when my lord has seen the last of 
us, and the tide is bearing us down the river, we 
need only put the ship to at the old landing, walk to 
the house, and carry her aboard. There will be 
none to see but Meg and old Jeremy, and they shall 
not know the ship is ours, or that we are farther 
bound than Tilbury." 

Sir Clement s appetite, which had been less 
neglected of late, was satisfied before Jerningham s, 
and the knight proposed that he should go and get 



288 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

the boat in readiness while the other finished eating. 
Jerningham consented, naming the men who were to 
be taken from the ship s crew upon the night s 
business. 

" I will join you very soon," said he, as Sir Clem 
ent left the room. 

Jerningham brought his supper to an end, and 
bade a drawer fetch the reckoning. Waiting for 
the boy s return, he flung himself on his back on 
a bench that stood against the wall. The knowledge 
that all was provided for, that his course was fully 
thought out, and that only action lay before him, 
brought to his mind a restfulness it had not lately 
known. The effect of his heavy meal acted with this 
to snare his senses ; so long it was since sleep had 
overtaken him, he was not on guard against it. When 
the tavern lad came back with the score, the gentle 
man s eyes were closed, his breathing was slow and 
deep. Knowing by experience that sleeping gentle 
men sometimes resented disturbance, the drawer 
went away more quietly than he had entered ; Mas 
ter Jerningham was a good customer, and might as 
well pay last as first. 

Sir Clement saw the boat ready, and then busied 
himself in the study of maps and charts by candle 
light in the cabin, pending Jerningham s appearance. 
In his preoccupation, he lost thought of the night s 
affair, in which Jerningham bore all- the responsi- 



RAVENSHAW S SLEEP IS INTERRUPTED. 289 

bility. He took no observance of the increasing 
darkness outside, until at last he became wonder- 
ingly sensible of Jerningham s delay. Hastening 
ashore, he found the sleeper in the tavern. 

" Good God ! " cried Jerningham, springing up at 
his friend s call ; " what s the hour ? How long have 
I slept ? Death ! is all lost ? " 

" Nay, there is time, if we bestir ourselves." 

" Then we must fly. My plans are all undone if 
she be there before I send away that captain. " 

Learning what o clock it was, Jerningham found 
he had yet time to write a short pretended letter, to 
serve as pretext for Ravenshaw s journey. This 
done, he hastened to the boat. 

Not until he was being rowed past Blackwall, did 
it occur to him that, in the haste of departure, he 
had not looked to the thorough arming of the party, 
and that there was not a firearm with the whole 
company. 

" Oh, pish ! there is steel enough among us to cut 
eight captains throats with a clean blade apiece, an 
it comes to throat-cutting," said Ermsby. 

" Twould come to that soon enough, but for the 
storm Meg would raise. Plague take her ! would I 
had the heart to quiet her the sure way ! But I can 
not steel myself to that. I must be led by circum 
stance ; tis for this captain s doings to say whether 
his throat need be cut. He had no pistol when be 



CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

left me. As for his sword and dagger " here Jer- 
ningham raised his voice and called to one of the men 
rowing : " Goodcole, thou hast some skill in sleights, 
and cutting purses, and the like, I have heard." 

"Ay, sir," was the confident reply. "In my time 
I have been called the knave with the invisible 
fingers. My friends used to say I could filch a 
man s shirt off his back while he stood talking to 
me in the street." 

" Poh ! " growled another of the men ; " I much 
doubt whether you can pick a pocket." 

" Here s a handful of testers I picked from yours," 
said Goodcole, resting his oar for a moment that he 
might return his comrade the coins. 

There was a brief stoppage from rowing while the 
other men hastily investigated the condition of their 
own pockets. 

" Excellent Goodcole ! " quoth Sir Clement Ermsby. 
"Thou art a proficient in a most delicate craft." 

"Thou couldst take away a man s sword and 
dagger ere he knew it, belike," said Jerningham. 

"I could take away his teeth, or the thoughts in 
the centre of his head," promptly answered Good- 
cole. 

" Perchance I shall put thee to the test by and 
by," said Jerningbam. 

In good time they found the landing with their 
lights, made the boat fast, and hastened through the 



RAVENSHAWS SLEEP IS INTERRUPTED. 2QI 

darkness to the country-house. The gate of the 
courtyard was not fastened. Jerningham first led 
the way to a small penthouse in one corner of the 
yard, where he desired that Sir Clement and two of 
the men should remain until he saw how the captain 
took the new commands. 

"And e en when the maid is brought," he added, 
with a sudden afterthought, "best you be not seen 
at the first ; wait till I try whether she is to be won 
softly. If she saw you she might remember that 
night, and be thrown into greater fear and opposi 
tion. I ll call when I have need of you." 

He then went with Meadows and Goodcole to the 
door within the porch ; finding it made fast inside, 
he gave two rapid double knocks, then two single 
ones. Soon a tiny wicket opened behind a little 
grating in the door. Jerningham held a lantern 
close to his face so that he might be quickly recog 
nised. The door opened, and Jerningham found 
Mistress Meg alone in the hall, where the light of 
a single candle struggled with the darkness. The 
lantern and torch brought in by the newcomers 
were a welcome reinforcement. Jerningham set the 
lantern on the chimney shelf, and had the torch 
thrust into a sconce on the wall. 

" Did the new steward come ? " he asked. 

"The new steward?" quoth Meg, with faint 
derision at the r title. " Yes ; am I not still here ? " 



2Q2 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

" Where is he ? " asked the master, ignoring the 
allusion to her threat. 

" In his chamber. He arrived, ate, drank, went 
thither ; and I have not seen him since." 

A sudden light came into Jerningham s eyes. 
"Ten to one he sleeps. He had a laborious day 
of it ere he came hither. What weapons had he 
when he came ? " * 

" Rapier and dagger," answered Meg, looking sur 
prised at the question. 

" Twere a good jest now," said Jerningham, pre 
tending amusement, "to take them from him in his 
sleep, then come away and send Jeremy to wake 
him." 

" Is he the kind of man to see the mirth of that 
jest?" inquired Meg, with little interest. 

" We shall see if he be. Goodcole, a chance to 
prove your mettle. Where s Jeremy ? Pray send 
him to me, mistress, and I ll thank you." 

While Meg was at the kitchen door calling the old 
man-servant, Jerningham spoke quietly to Goodcole. 
Jeremy appeared, blinking and bowing ; as he passed 
Meg, he chuckled, and said, in undertone, "A hus 
band mends all, sooth ! " Master Jerningham, ascer 
taining from Meg what chamber the captain lay in, 
bade the old man show Goodcole the way. The pair 
took a lantern, of which Goodcole concealed all but 
a small part in his jerkin. 



RAVENSHAW S SLEEP IS INTERRUPTED. 293 

During the absence of the two, Jerningham 
directed Meg s attention to Meadows : " This is the 
man shall abide here for a time ; I must send t other 
on business that bears no delay, him that lies up 
stairs, I mean. Tis partly for that reason I have 
come here. And partly tis that I may, for an hour 
or so, play the host to a visitor that must perforce 
lodge here to-night, a young woman." 

He paused ; but Meg merely paid attention to 
him with eyes and ears, and displayed no emotion. 

" She is daughter to a merchant I much esteem 
in London ; she has been in some manner bewitched, 
or constrained, or seduced, to fly from her home 
to this neighbourhood with an unthrift knave. By 
chance the plot came to my ears, and for her father s 
sake, and her honour s, I have caused her to be stayed 
in her flight and fetched hither. To-morrow I will 
come and put her aboard a vessel that shall carry 
her to Tilbury, where her father hath gone upon his 
affairs. If it fall to you to comfort or serve her 
while she is here, take heed you talk nothing of 
the matter, for all she may say to you. And not 
a word of this before Captain Ravenshaw when 
he comes down." 

Whatever were Meg s thoughts, she kept them 
to herself. Though she might fear ghosts and 
witches, she was not to be thrown out of com 
posure by surprises and visits, even if they came 



294 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

thick in a few hours, after months of the still 
and solitary life that was the rule at the Grange. 

Goodcole and Jeremy returned, the former carry 
ing the rapier and dagger with a nonchalant, even 
contemptuous, air, as if his task had been too easy. 
Jerningham smiled approval ; he took the weapons, 
thrust the dagger in his girdle, and laid the rapier 
behind him on the table, as his own scabbard was, of 
course, occupied. He then sent Jeremy back with a 
candle to summon the captain down to the hall. 

When the captain came, it was he that held 
the candle ; while with one hand he dragged Jeremy 
by the collar. 

" Hell and furies!" he roared; "what nest of 
rogues, what den of thieves, what what He 
paused, and stared open-mouthed at Jerningham, 
who was standing with folded arms and a look of 
amusement. 

" How now, captain ? What is ill with you ?" 

" My weapons, sir my rapier, my dagger 
angled, filched, stolen in my sleep ! God s death, 
is this the kind of a house you keep here ? Ah, 
you have them, I see." 

But Jerningham pleasantly raised his hand, so 
that the captain in mere courtesy stopped in the 
midst of a stride forward, and waited for the 
other s words. 

"A slight piece of mirth, captain, and a lesson 



RAVENSHAWS SLEEP IS INTERRUPTED, 295 

for you, too. Coming hither upon a sudden busi 
ness, and learning you were so sound a sleeper, 
I saw my chance of disarming you, and showing 
you what danger a man may be in asleep." 

" Why, sooth, I am not wont to sleep so sound," 
said Ravenshaw, a little shamefacedly ; " but, being 
come to this quiet and lone place, I allowed myself 
to slide, as one might say, and so twas. But 
to take my weapons from me awake, that were 
a different business, sir, I think I may say." 

"All the world knows that, captain." 

"By your leave, sir, I ll have them back again, 
I feel awkward without em." 

"A mere moment, I pray you, captain," said Jer- 
ningham, with a smile of harmless raillery. " I 
would have you hear first the business I have 
come hither so late to send you upon. As it is 
so sudden a matter, and hath some discomfort in 
it, you might take it in choler ; and then twere best 
you had no steel to your hand." 

Ravenshaw thought that his master s wit was 
of a very childish quality ; but said, merely, as he 
summoned patience : 

."What is the business?" 

" Oh, a slight, simple matter in itself, but needing 
absolute sureness in the doing, and instant speed 
in the starting. This letter is to be carried to 
Dover, to him that is named upon it, and an 



296 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

answer brought to me at Winchester House. That 
is all." 

" Oh, pish ! a slight, paltry journey ; nothing to 
make me choleric. With the horse I rode to-day, 
I ll go and come in four days." 

Which was very good time upon the horses and 
roads of that period. 

"But there s the pinch," quoth Jerningham, "I 
must have the answer Monday morning ere the 
Exchange opens. You must know I take a gentle 
man s part in a merchant s venture or so, and if 
certain cargoes now due at Dover In short, 
you must ride forth immediately, as soon as horse 
can be saddled." 

Ravenshaw, remembering his promise to pay Cut 
ting Tom at the parson s on the morrow noon, 
slowly shook his head. 

" How now, captain ? Would you shirk at the 
outset ? Will you be continually failing me ? This 
is no such matter as the other, man." 

" I do not shirk ; but I will not start to-night. I 
will set forth to-morrow, and make what speed man 
and beast can." 

" Look you, captain ; my commands are that you 
set forth now. If you choose to throw yourself out 
upon the world again " 

Jerningham paused. Now, in truth, Ravenshaw 
had felt he could be very comfortable for a time 



RAVENSHAWS SLEEP IS INTERRUPTED. 2&lt;$J 

on this quiet estate ; his body and his wits, both 
somewhat overtaxed in the struggle for existence 
he had so long maintained, plead for repose. He 
sighed, and fell back upon obvious objections, not 
aware that Jerningham already knew of his engage 
ment for the morrow with Cutting Tom. 

" Why, bethink you, the darkness - he blun 
dered. 

"A man may go a steady pace by lantern-light. 
I ve ridden many a mile so," said Jerningham. 

" But how is a man to keep the right road, with 
none awake to tell him ? " 

"You must know the way to the highroad, 
for you came over it to-day ; and you must know 
the highroad as far as to Canterbury, for you told 
me so when I directed you to this place. It will be 
daylight long before you come to Canterbury." 

The captain shook his head again. 

Jerningham felt that time was passing rapidly. 
" If you are for disobedience, you are no longer 
for my service," he said. " Take yourself from 
my house and my land forthwith." 

Ravenshaw laughed ; and stood motionless, which 
was what Jerningham wished, in case the captain 
was determined against an immediate start for 
Dover, for it would not do to have him free in the 
neighbourhood, perchance to learn of the treachery 
concerning the maid in time to give trouble. It had 



298 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

occurred to Jerningham that a threatening step on 
the captain s part, by affording excuse for a deed of 
blood, would lessen its horror and create in Meg, 
with less fear of retribution upon the house, less 
mood for turning accuser. So he resumed, with 
studied offensiveness of tone : 

" Begone from my house, I bid you ! " With 
which, he drew the captain s dagger as if he forgot it 
was not his own. 

Jerningham s back was to the table ; Ravenshaw 
faced him, three or four paces away ; by the front 
door stood Meadows, with a long knife in his girdle ; 
Goodcole, before the fireplace, was similarly armed. 
Meg and Jeremy, wondering spectators, were near 
the kitchen door. Ravenshaw noted all this in a 
single glance right and left ; noted in the looks of 
the two men the habit of instant readiness to support 
their master. 

" Pray, consider the hour," said Ravenshaw, feel 
ing it was a time for temporising. 

" Tis for you to consider ; I command," said 
Jerningham, taking the captain s sword from the 
table behind him. 

" You should give me my weapons before you bid 
me depart," said the captain, in as light a tone as he 
could assume. 

" When you are gone, I will throw them after 
you." 



RAVENSHAW S SLEEP IS INTERRUPTED. 299 

Ravenshaw dashed forward with a growl ; but 
stopped short in time, with the point of his own 
sword at his breast. He had an impulse to grasp the 
blade ; but he knew, if he were quick enough for 
that, there was yet the dagger to be reckoned with, 
besides the two men, who drew their knives at that 
moment. Jerningham seemed to brace himself for a 
spring ; he held the captain s sword and dagger as in 
sockets of iron ; a dark gleam shone in his eyes. 
Ravenshaw knew the look ; time and again he had 
worn it himself ; he knew also when, as player in a 
game, he was within a move of being checkmated. 

" Well," quoth he, with a grin of resignation, 
" you hold all the good cards. I will carry your 
letter." He suddenly bethought him of a friend or 
two in Rochester, which he would pass through early 
in the morning if he made the journey, by whom he 
might send Cutting Tom s money to the parson. 
Contemplating the life of ease he had promised him 
self in his new service, he was not sorry a good 
pretext had occurred for withdrawing his refusal. 

"You will set out immediately?" asked Jerning 
ham. 

" The sooner the better, now." 

Jerningham sent the old man out with a lantern to 
saddle the captain s horse and bring it to the door. 
He then handed the letter to the captain, and gave 
particular instructions, such as would be necessary in 



3OO CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

a genuine errand. Jeremy reappeared, at the front 
door, and announced that the horse was ready. Jer- 
ningham surrendered the captain s rapier and dagger 
with grace, and gave him money for the journey. 
Ravenshaw then examined the lantern which Jeremy 
brought him, waved a farewell to Jerningham and 
Meg, and strode to the door. 

Jerningham breathed softly, lest even a sigh of 
satisfaction might betray his sense of triumph. " She 
is mine ! " sang his heart. 

The door, left slightly ajar by the old man, opened 
wide as if by a will of its own, just as the captain 
was about to grasp it. A white-bearded, ruddy-faced 
man, dressed in rags and upheld by one leg and a 
crutch, stood grinning at the threshold. 

" God save your worship ! " said he to the captain. 
" We come late ; but first our affairs hindered us, 
and then we mistook the way. By good chance, we 
find you awake ; else had we passed the night under 
some penthouse or such, hereabouts, and come to 
drink your health in the morning." 

Ravenshaw having mechanically stepped back, the 
old beggar hobbled in, followed by several other 
maimed ragamuffins, with whom came the two 
women Ravenshaw had seen in the afternoon, and 
a pair of handsome frowsy young hussies who had 
not appeared in the road. The legless dwarf still 
rode upon a comrade s shoulders. As the motley 



RAVENSHAW S SLEEP IS INTERRUPTED. 301 

gang trooped in, there was a great clatter and thud 
of crutches, wooden legs, and staves. 

" God s death ! who are these ? " cried Jerningham, 
in petulant astonishment. 

" Some poor friends of mine I met on the way 
hither," said Ravenshaw, apologetically. " I asked 
them to sup with me here. I had well-nigh forgot." 

" Sup with you ! By what right well, no matter 
for that. Where did you think to find provender for 
all those mouths ? " 

" I was to find drink only ; they were to find 
meat." 

" Ay," said the chief beggar, " chickens ; and here 
they be, young and plump." He thrust his hand 
into a sack another fellow carried, and drew out a 
cold roast pullet. The captain gazed at this speci 
men with admiring eyes, and unconsciously licked 
his lips. 

"By your leave," said he to Jerningham, "I ll 
tarry but a half -hour to play the host to my invited 
guests ; and then away. I can make up the time ; a 
half-hour, more or less " 

" Tis not to be thought of ! " cried Jerningham. 
"There has been too much time lost already." 

" Nay, I ll make it up, I tell you. I am bound to 
these people by my invitation ; they have come far 
out of their way." 

"Oh, as for that, they need not go away thirsty. 



3O2 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

Jeremy, take these good people to the kitchen, 
and broach a cask." Master Jerningham, in his 
desire for Raven shaw s departure, could force him 
self to any concession ; he considered that, left to 
themselves, these beggars would be no obstacle to 
his design ; they could be kept at their ale in the 
kitchen. 

" Why, to tell the truth," interposed the captain, 
" tis not so much their thirst troubles me ; tis my 
hunger." And he leaned a little toward the fowl, 
sniffing, and feasting on it with his eyes. 

"Take it with you, man, and eat as you ride," said 
Jerningham, still restraining his impatience. 

" Why, that s fair enough," replied Ravenshaw. 
"I ll just drink one cup with these my guests, and 
then leave em to your hospitality." Without more 
ado, he walked to the kitchen door, where Jeremy 
was standing, and motioned the beggars to follow. 
They filed into the kitchen, seven men and four 
women, not a whole body in the gang save the two 
robust wenches. 

"A bare minute or so, sir," said Ravenshaw to 
Jerningham, and went after them, taking the lantern 
with him. Soon there came from the kitchen the 
noise of loosened tongues chattering in the gibberish 
of the mendicant profession. 

Master Jerningham, knowing that opposition would 
only cause further delay, controlled himself as best 




THERE . 



WAS THE MAID OF CHEAPSIDE, PALE AND 
BEWILDERED." 



RAVENSHAW*S SLEEP IS INTERRUPTED. 303 

he could, and waited in silence, pacing the hall, while 
the captain had his humour. Meg, with housewifely 
instinct, betook herself to the kitchen to keep an 
eye on matters there. Presently the captain reap 
peared, with a pullet in one hand, his lantern in the 
other, Meg having meanwhile lighted candles in the 
kitchen. 

" And now to horse ! " cried he, closing the 
kitchen door after him. 

" And God save us from anymore delays!" said 
Jerningham, with a pretence of jocularity. 

" So say I," quoth Ravenshaw, stalking forward. 

In the centre of the hall he stopped, with a cry of 
astonishment, which made Jerningham turn swiftly 
toward the open front door. 

There in the porch, which was suddenly lighted 
up with rays of torch and lantern, was the maid 
of Cheapside, pale and bewildered, held on either 
side by Cutting Tom and one of his comrades. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

KNAVE AGAINST GENTLEMAN. 

" Who shall take your word? 
A whoreson, upstart, apocryphal captain, 
Whom not a Puritan in Blackfriars will trust 
So much as for a feather." The A Ichemist. 

CUTTING TOM was struck motionless at sight of 
the captain ; but, after a moment, reassuring himself 
by a look at Jerningham, he led his captive into the 
hall. His men followed. The group came to a halt 
ere any one found voice. 

Raven shaw, recovering a little from his surprise, 
was about to hurl a question at Cutting Tom, when 
his tongue was stayed by his seeing the maid s eyes 
turn with blazing indignation upon himself, and her 
lips open to speak. 

" So, then, it is your work ! " she said. 

" My work ? " quoth the captain, in a maze, drop 
ping his chicken. 

" No doubt you spied upon poor Master Holyday, 
and corrupted these rogues he trusted in," she went 
on ; and then, giving way, she wept : " Oh, God ! into 
whose hands have I fallen ! " 

Ravenshaw quailed at her tears ; but suddenly 
304 



KNAVE AGAINST GENTLEMAN. 305 

stiffened himself, set down his lantern, and said 
wrathfully to Cutting Tom : 

" What means this, knave ? Why came you here ? 
Where is the gentleman you serve ? Speak, thou 
slave, or by 

But Millicent, coming swiftly out of her tears, 
cried, scornfully : 

" Think not to blind me, thou villain ! The gen 
tleman is where you bade these wretches leave him, 
in the woods, robbed, mayhap slain ! Alas, 
having seen his fate, what may I expect for myself ! " 
And again she fell into lamentations. 

"I understand this not," said Ravenshaw. "Cut 
ting Tom, thou blundering hound, why bring you 
this maid to this place, and to me ? " 

" Oh, out upon pretense ! " cried Millicent. 
"Thinkst thou I am so great a fool as not to see? 
God send I were Sir Peregrine s wife rather than 
such a villain s captive ! " 

"Mistress, I know not why you are here, nor what 
hath befallen Master Holyday. There is some mis 
take or falseness, which I shall worm out of this 
tongue-tied knave ; but first assure yourself you are 
not my captive." 

" Oh, peace ! As if this fellow, whom you call by 
name, and who cringes before you, had not turned 
treacherous ! " 

" Ten to one he hath turned treacherous, and dear 



306 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

he shall pay for it ; but he hath not turned so at my 
instigation." 

" Oh, no more, I pray. Even this fellow is not 
bold-faced enough to deny it is for you he has 
betrayed us. God knows what is to become of me, 
a prisoner in your hands, without a soul that knows 
my whereabouts to protect me ! " 

At this, Master Jerningham, who had kept still 
while an inspiration perfected itself in his mind, 
stepped courteously forward, and said, with grave 
sympathy : 

" Not so, mistress. I, the master of this house, 
will protect you in it." 

She looked at him in surprise. His was a face she 
recalled vaguely as having seen, or faces more or 
less resembling it, in the streets of London, or in 
churches, or other public places ; but it was not a 
face she had ever had reason to note carefully. 
Whatever were the forgotten occasions upon which 
she may have observed it, as she had observed ten 
thousand faces worth a careless second glance, the 
night of her adventure in February was not one of 
them ; for on that night, besides keeping himself 
in shadow, and leaving all talk to Sir Clement 
Ermsby, Jerningham had hidden his countenance 
under the brim of a great Spanish hat. So his face 
at this moment, appearing as that of a stranger, 
awakened in her mind no association either pleasant 



KNAVE AGAINST GENTLEMAN. 307 

or unpleasant ; in itself, it wore so serious and sweet 
a smile, and the manner of its owner was so quietly 
chivalrous, that Millicent s feelings promptly declared 
in its favour. A sudden sense of safety came over 
her, depriving her for a moment of speech. Then 
she murmured, unsteadily : 

" Master of this house, say you ? " 

"Ay, mistress, but no conspirator in your being 
brought here. I am not often at the place ; this 
man hath newly arrived as steward ; I came to-night 
without warning, no more expecting to see strangers 
in my house than he expected to see me. I know 
not what hath been afoot ; but Heaven must have 
sent me here, if my coming has saved you from 
a mischief." 

He offered her his hand. Cutting Tom had 
already released her arm. After a moment, she 
took the hand, and allowed Jerningham to lead 
her to a seat by the table. As she scanned his 
features, an increasing trustfulness appeared in her 
own. 

" Sir," she faltered, deeply relieved and grateful, 
" I must thank Heaven for my deliverance. To 
find a gentleman after these rascals " 

She cast a glance at Ravenshaw, and trembled 
to think what manner of man she had escaped ; 
for indeed at that instant the captain looked like 
the very devil. 



308 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

" He deliver you ! " exclaimed Ravenshaw, as 
soon as his feelings permitted him to speak calmly. 
" Why, he is of all men the one you most need 
deliverance from ! " 

Jerningham smiled with tolerant contempt. " I 
scarce think you will believe that, mistress," said 
he, lightly, "seeing how completely I am a stranger 
to you." 

" Believe him ? " she replied, scornfully. " He is 
the prince of cozeners ; he is all made of lies and 
shifts. I know not how he hath come to be steward 
to a gentleman ; belike you know not of him ; per 
chance he hath passed upon you by another name, 
as he did upon us ; he is Captain Ravenshaw." 

" To say truth, mistress, I knew him ; but I little 
thought " 

" Knew me ? " said Ravenshaw, with a laugh. 
" Ay, indeed. Well enough for me in turn to know 
his designs against yourself, mistress ; from which, 
as from marriage with that old dotard, I had hoped 
to see you saved. As for your being brought here, 
ask these men. Find your tongue, Cutting Tom, 
and explain this." 

" Why, of a truth," said Cutting Tom, slowly, 
finding courage in a significant glance from Jerning 
ham, " I know not what you would have me explain. 
I am but a dull-witted man ; if you had only told 
me beforehand what to say " 



KNAVE AGAINST GENTLEMAN. 309 

" Tis too clear these knaves acted by your orders, 
captain," interrupted Jerningham. 

"Why, yes, so we did, and that s the hell of it," 
said Cutting Tom. 

" Liar and slave ! " cried Ravenshaw, half drawing 
his sword ; but he controlled himself, and said : 
" Tis plain that you, Master Jerningham, have 
bought this knave, though tis beyond my ken how 
you learned what he was to be about to-night. 
Mistress, I swear to you, the man who intends 
you harm is he that you put your trust in ; the 
man who would save you is he that you revile 
and disbelieve." 

" Mistress," said Jerningham, ignoring this speech, 
" wherever you have come from, wherever you would 
go, tis now too late in the night to leave this house. 
Shall I conduct you to a chamber where you will be 
safe and alone ? Your ears need not then be assailed 
by the rude talk of this man. Surely you will not 
doubt me upon his wild words ? " 

"Nay," said she, rising compliantly, "I heed not 
his words." 

" For proof of them," said the captain, " let me 
tell you that this gentleman employed me to be his 
go-between with you." 

She blushed. Jerningham said: "Oh, villain! 
You have the devil s invention, I think. You would 
make yourself out a worse knave, that you might 



310 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

make her distrust me. Mistress, if you have the 
smallest fear 

" Sir, God forbid I should doubt a gentleman on 
the word of a known rascal ! " 

Jerningham led her by the hand toward the cor 
ridor at the right. But the captain, not delayed by 
his momentary reflection upon the occasional incon 
venience of a bad reputation, sprang ahead of them, 
and took his place at the corridor entrance, grasping 
his sword. Master Jerningham instantly drew back 
with the maid, in a manner implying that the cap 
tain s threatening action was as much directed against 
her as him. He hastened with her toward the oppo 
site passage, but Ravenshaw was again beforehand. 
Jerningham thereupon conducted her to the front 
part of the hall. It was not his desire to release 
her hand, as he must needs do if he himself fought 
Ravenshaw at this juncture. He did not wish to 
call in Ermsby yet, fearing the effect her recognition 
of that gallant might have upon her confidence in 
himself. His own two followers in the hall were 
armed only with knives. Cutting Tom, the dis 
guised Gregory, and their three companions, were 
his men in reality ; but he must seemingly win them 
over before using them, lest she perceive they indeed 
acted for him in giving this direful turn to her elope 
ment. 

" Thou whom he calls Cutting Tom," said Jer- 



KNAVE AGAINST GENTLEMAN, 31! 

ningham, "thou and thy fellows, ye have done a 
dangerous thing for your necks in conveying this 
lady hither against her will." 

" Sir, I know it," replied Tom. " But I was led 
by my needs, and these my followers knew nothing 
of the business. I take you to be a gentleman that 
has power in the world. I beg of you, now that the 
villainy has failed, deal not too hardly with us." 

" It lies with yourselves. If you be minded to 
undo the villainy, to serve me in my protection of 
this maid 

" We will, we will ! and thank your good wor 
ship ! " said Tom, quickly, and turned to his men 
with a look which elicited from them a chorus of 
confirmatory " ayes," supported by a variety of oaths. 

" Then seize that man, till I pass with this lady," 
said Jerningham, in a decided tone. " To him, all 
of ye, Meadows and Goodcole, too ! " 

Cutting Tom and his men drew their swords ; 
having first attached their lanterns and torch to 
wall-sconces, and dropped the bundle of Holyday s 
clothes. The party advanced upon Raven shaw, be 
ing joined by Meadows and Goodcole, which twain 
preferred wisely that the bearers of longer weapons 
should precede them into the captain s immediate 
neighbourhood. Tom himself went rather shuf 
flingly, doubtless willing to give opportunity for any 
more impetuous comrade to be more forward in the 



312 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

matter. But the other men were no more eager 
than he to be first ; and so the movement, beginning 
with some show of a fearless rush, deteriorated in 
a trice to a hesitating shamble. At two steps from 
the captain, the party came to a stop. 

" Ho, dogs, will ye come dancing up to me so 
gaily ? " cried Ravenshaw. " Dance back again as 
fast ! " His rapier leaped out, and sang against 
three of their own blades in the time of a breath. 

All seven of the men, appalled at his sudden on 
slaught, stepped hastily back. The captain strode 
forward. The fellows increased their backward pace. 
He followed. They turned in a kind of panic, and 
ran pell-mell for the front door. Laughing loudly 
at their retreat, Ravenshaw stopped, as he was in no 
mind to be drawn outside while Millicent remained 
within. At sound of his laugh, the fellows turned 
and stood about the doorway with their weapons in 
defence. 

" Sir," said Ravenshaw, turning to Master Jer- 
ningham, " I pray you, look upon this maid ; consider 
her youth and her innocence. Will you mar such 
an one a lifetime, to pleasure yourself an hour ? As 
you are a gentleman, I ask you, give her up." 

" Do not give me up to him ! " she said, af- 
frightedly, clinging closer to Jerningham. 

Ravenshaw shook his head in sorrow. "Ah, 
mistress, that you should think I would harm you ! 



KNAVE AGAINST GENTLEMAN. 313 

If you but knew but for what you think of me, 
no matter. Tis a cruel twist of circumstance that 
you should oppose him that would save you, and 
cleave to him that would destroy you. You would 
know how the affair stands, if there were a spark 
of truth to be found among these knaves and 
traitors. Oh, for a gleam of honesty ! How foul 
falsehood looks when it has the whole place to 
itself ! " 

A whinny of impatience was heard from the horse 
waiting outside. 

" Tis high time you were in the saddle, captain," 
said Jerningham. " Come, man ; I will forget your 
attempt upon this maid, since no harm has followed. 
And she, too, will forget it, if she take my counsel. 
Will you trust your welfare in this matter to me, 
mistress ? " 

" Entirely," answered Millicent, in a low voice. 

" Oh, mistress, how you are deceived ! " said 
Ravenshaw. "What can I do to save you?" 

She shrank back from his look. 

"Fear not, mistress," said Jerningham, softly. 
" Come, come, captain, an end, an end ! Time is 
hastening. I pray you, be off upon your ride to 
Dover." 

" Dover ! " echoed the captain, with a strange 
laugh. " Ride to Dover ! By God s death, things 
have changed in the past ten minutes ! I shall not 



314 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

ride to Dover, thank your worship ! not this night ! 
I shall stay here to save this lady in spite of herself! 
in spite of herself and of you all, good gen 
tlemen ! " 

" Is this your promise, you rascal ? " exclaimed 
Jerningham. " You gave your word to ride forth 
with." 

" And being a rascal, I claim a rascal s privilege to 
break his word ! " cried Raven shaw. " Away from 
that lady, or by this hand " 

He did not finish his threat, but made straightway 
for Jerningham. The latter ran with the maid to 
the farther side of the table, and whipped out his 
sword. Ravenshaw, in pursuing, turned his back to 
the fellows at the doorway. " Upon him, men ! " 
shouted Jerningham, and then, raising his voice still 
higher, called out : " Ho, Ermsby, to the rescue ! " 

Ravenshaw, trusting his ears to warn him of what 
threatened in the rear, kept Jerningham s sword in 
play rather cautiously, for fear of too much endanger 
ing or frightening Millicent, who was pale as death. 
The girl, clinging to Jerningham, was thus rather a 
protection than an encumbrance to that gentleman. 
Very soon the captain heard the bustle of newcomers 
entering at the front door, and then a general move 
ment, led by a more resolute tread than he had 
noticed before. He turned and faced Sir Clement 
Ermsby, whom he recognised but vaguely as a per- 



KNAVE AGAINST GENTLEMAN. 315 

son with whom he had been in collision sometime 
in the past. He parried the knight s thrust, and 
guarded himself with his dagger from a lunge of 
Cutting Tom s. He then spun around on his heel, 
lest Jerningham might either pierce his back, or 
profit by the opportunity to take the maid away. 

Jerningham had chosen the latter course, but he 
was hindered by the rush of some of his own men, 
who had run around the table in order that the 
captain might be surrounded. Thus checked for an 
instant, and in some way made sensible of Raven- 
shaw s last movement, Jerningham turned back, and 
again engaged the captain. Raven shaw was thus 
between two forces, one headed by Jerningham, the 
other by Sir Clement. He leaped upon the table, 
jumped to the floor on the other side, while half a 
dozen blades darted after him ; dragged the table to 
a corner, and turned to face his enemies from the 
little triangular space behind it. Led by Ermsby, 
they rushed upon him, thinking to find the table of 
short use as a bulwark against such numbers. 

But Jerningham stood back out of the rush, still 
holding Millicent by the hand, and shouted : 

" Some keep him busy above the table ; some 
thrust under at his legs. Let the knave die, tis 
good time ! I ll look to the comfort of the lady." 
And he started again toward the right-hand passage. 

Ravenshaw bent forward across the table, and 



316 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

swept aside the points of steel with sword and dag 
ger ; but they threatened him anew, and he heard 
men scrambling under the table to stab his legs ; he 
saw, between two heads of his foes, Jerningham s 
movement toward the passage, and he shouted : 

" Ho, rufflers, maunderers, upright men ! a rescue ! 
a rescue ! " 

Jerningham halted, somewhat wondering. The 
kitchen door flew open, and, with a hasty thumping 
of crutches, the beggars hobbled in, men and women, 
most of them with pewter cans, from which they had 
been regaling themselves. At sight of these maimed 
creatures, with their frowsy hair, their gaunt looks, 
the red blotches and bandages of some, the white 
eyeballs of others, Millicent started back in horror. 
As the door by which they came in was near the 
passage toward which Jerningham was leading her, 
and as they spread into a wide group in entering, 
they blocked the way of her departure. 

" Stop the gentry cove ! " cried Ravenshaw. " In 
the name of the salamon, stand by a brother ! " 

The captaip s assailants had drawn away a little to 
see who the newcomers were. Having satisfied him 
self at a glance, Sir Clement Ermsby laughed, and 
said : " A rescue, sooth ! A bunch of refuse, 
rotten pieces of men. Come, back to your work ! " 
And he renewed the attack on Ravenshaw ; while 
Jerningham, calling out, " Ay, to him ! these be 



KNAVE AGAINST GENTLEMAN. 317 

helpless cripples," started again for the passage, his 
sword-point forward. 

But with a wild whoop the beggars straightened 
out of their lame attitudes, swung their crutches and 
staves in the air, lost all regard of sores and patches, 
found arms for empty sleeves, showed keen eyes 
where white balls had plead for pity, threw off all the 
shams of their profession, and swept upon the cap 
tain s foes. A sturdy blow of a staff bore down 
Jerningham s rapier, a filching hook tore his dagger 
from his other hand. Iron-shod crutches and staves 
rained upon the heads of Sir Clement and the other 
men ; hooks caught their clothing, and dragged some 
to the floor. When at close quarters, the beggars 
drew their knives ; the women fought like men. 
Millicent, separated from Jerningham in the fray, ran 
shrieking in the one direction open to her ; this was 
toward the corner at the right of the front door. 
Ravenshaw, dashing through the confusion, placed 
himself triumphantly at her side. She essayed to 
run from him ; but he gently swept her with a 
powerful arm into the corner behind him. 

" Oh, God, I am lost ! " she cried, seeing Jerning 
ham and his men brought to pause by the sturdy 
wielders of staff, crutch, and knife. 

Across the captain s mind flashed a wild project of 
bearing her away in search of her uncle s house, 
which he knew was somewhere in the neighbour- 



3l8 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

hood ; but he heard a sudden fierce dash of the long- 
expected rain against the rear windows, saw how faint 
and exhausted she was, thought of the opposition 
she would offer, and considered the up-hill fight he 
would have to wage against an enemy desperate with 
the fear of losing his prey. He had a better idea, 
one in which prowess might be supplemented with 
craft. 

Quite near him, in the wall at his right hand, was 
the open door to the porter s room which he had 
noticed upon arriving at the house ; it had no other 
means of entrance or exit, its high-placed window 
being a mere slit. He purposely moved a little to the 
left. Millicent, seeing an opening, glided along the 
wall to escape him. He sprang forward, and con 
fronted her just at the door of the porter s room. 
Recoiling from him, she instinctively darted through 
the door. " Good ! " cried the captain, taking his 
place in the doorway, his face to the hall. 

Millicent, in the little room, sank upon a pallet, 
which was its only furniture, and put out her hands 
to keep the captain from approaching her. But she 
saw that he had stopped at the threshold, with his 
back to her. It was, indeed, no part of his plan to 
follow her into the room. 

Jerningham, startled at the maid s sudden disap 
pearance, ran forward with a cry of rage ; but Raven- 
shaw met sword and dagger with sword and dagger, 



KNAVE AGAINST GENTLEMAN. 319 

and Jerningham was fain to draw back to save his 
body. Matters thereupon resumed a state of abey 
ance, during which men recovered breath, regained 
their feet, and took account of bleeding heads and 
flesh wounds. 

" Hark you ! " spoke the captain, in a tone meant 
for her as well as for Jerningham. " It is now for us 
to prove which of us means this lady no harm. Let 
her abide where she is, till the storm and the night 
are past ; then, together, we ll conduct her to her 
friends. And meanwhile, the man who attempts to 
enter this room declares himself her enemy." 

Jerningham s face showed the rage of temporary 
defeat. "Then come from the door there," he said, 
sullenly, for want of a better speech. 

" Nay, for this night I am the door here, though 
she may close this wooden door an she please. 
These" his sword and dagger "she ll find true 
bolts and bars. She may e en sleep, if she will, 
there s a pallet to lie on." 

Sitting weak and perplexed on the pallet in the 
dark little apartment, she wondered what purpose the 
captain might be about. 

At the suggestion of sleep, Jerningham had an 
idea. Pretending to confer in whispers with Sir 
Clement, he secretly beckoned Gregory, who was 
still in his false beard. The servant approaching 
without appearance of intent, Jerningham, still under 



32O CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

cover of talking to Ermsby, asked in undertone for 
the sleeping potion which Gregory was to have 
obtained. The lackey transferred a phial in an tin- 
perceived manner to his master s hand. Pocketing 
it in triumph, Jerningham turned to the captain : 

" We shall see how honestly you mean, then. 
And that the lady may rest freer of annoyance, send 
these knaves of yours out of her hearing, back to 
their ale." 

" With all my heart when you send away your 
knaves also." 

"I will do so; but fear not, mistress," he called 
out. "I will not leave this hall. "Tis all for the 
avoiding of bloodshed, and your better comfort in 
the end." 

" Tis well, sir ; I am not afraid," she answered, in 
a tired, trembling voice. 

It was agreed that Jerningham s men should go 
into the room on the left-hand side of the hall, diag 
onally opposite that in which the maid was ; that the 
beggars should return to the kitchen ; that the sig 
nal for both parties to withdraw should be given by 
Jerningham. He was about to speak the word forth 
with, when the captain interposed : 

" By your leave, I ll first have private speech with 
my friends. You have already had with yours, and 
may have again ere they depart." 

Jerningham saw no way of refusing, or, indeed, 



KNAVE AGAINST GENTLEMAN. 321 

much reason therefor ; doubtless the captain wished 
but to counsel his rascals to be vigilant for a possible 
second call. So Jerningham gave consent by silence. 
Raven shaw had a conference with the beggars, in 
which chief parts were taken by the white-bearded 
rogue and the ancient cripple who had guided the 
maunderers to the Grange. 

Presently Raven shaw signified that he had done; 
whereupon Jerningham said " Begone," and the two 
parties filed out, each narrowly watching the other, 
Jerningham s men taking a torch with them, the 
beggars clumping with their iron-tipped wooden im 
plements. Only Ravenshaw took note that one of 
the lanterns disappeared with the beggars. The 
captain, Jerningham, Mistress Meg, who had watched 
recent occurrences from the kitchen door, and Sir 
Clement Ermsby were left in the hall. 

" How ? " quoth the captain, staring at the knight. 
" Do you break faith ? Why go you not with the 
other men ? " 

"Troth, sir, I am nobody s man," replied Sir 
Clement. " I am this gentleman s friend, and, when 
I choose, I fight for him ; but my comings and 
goings are not to be stipulated for by any man." 

Ravenshaw perceived that a minor point had been 
scored against him ; but he was not much discom 
fited. He had merely to play for time, to guard the 
doorway of that room for an unknown number of 



322 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

hours. As long as he could temporise, two antago 
nists were no worse than one ; if it came to 
righting, two were a little worse, but, as both must 
attack in front, the odds were nothing out of his 
experience. 

" Have we not met before this, sir ? " asked Raven- 
shaw, scrutinising Ermsby. 

" My memory is but so-so," replied Sir Clement, 
quizzically. 

" Before God, I think we have," said the captain, 
"and upon opposite sides, too, as we are now. Would 
I could remember ! I have had so many quarrels, 
so many foes. I could swear you and I had clashed 
once upon a time." 

Sir Clement, who remembered the meeting well 
enough, merely smiled as if amused at the captain s 
puzzlement. Ravenshaw drew a stool to the door 
way, and sat down, weapons still in hand. Sir Clem 
ent was leaning back against the table, at the 
opposite side of the hall, with folded arms. He 
made mirth for himself by suggesting various impos 
sible places where the captain might have met him ; 
while Jerningham, ever keeping the corner of his eye 
on his enemy, went back and held a whispered con 
versation with Meg. 

" Fear not," said Jerningham, heeding the peremp 
tory question in her eyes. " The maid is in yonder 
room. This captain, by a strange chance, knows her 



KNAVE AGAINST GENTLEMAN. 323 

as one he hath designs against. He would neither 
have her go free, nor taken back to her father. He 
thinks to find her at his mercy. But we shall outwit 
him, and no more fighting. Tis for you to " 

" One would think he was her friend," said Meg, 
glancing toward the captain. 

" Poh ! she fears him as he were the devil." 

" Does he, then, desire her ? " queried Meg, with 
a curious feigned unconcernedness of tone and look. 

Jerningham regarded her with the silence of sudden 
discovery ; then, restraining a smile, said, watchfully : 
" He is another s instrument, I think. Such a man s 
fancy would ne er light upon a child ; she is little 
more. A woman of your figure were more to his 
liking, I ll wager." He paused, to observe Meg s 
blush, which was not resentful ; then he added, sig 
nificantly : "If a woman were minded to make a 
fresh trial of life, with a brave husband now " 

"Well, and what then?" said she, looking him 
frankly in the eyes. " How if a woman were ? The 
man is not seeking a wife, ten to one." 

" A few drops of this, mixed with a man s wine," 
said Jerningham, producing the phial in such manner 
that his body concealed it from Ravenshaw s view, 
" have been known to work a wonder." 

"What is it ?" she whispered, gazing at it. 

"A love potion," he answered. "The surest in 
the world, too. Tis the one with which " But 



324 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

he broke off, shook his head, and replaced the phial 
in his pocket. 

" Let me have it," she whispered, excitedly. 

" If you will swear to one thing." 

" What ? " 

" That you will find means to use it this night. * 

" Why this night ? " 

He invented a reason. " So that, when it hath 
effect, you may use your power to draw him from 
that maid." 

" I swear," she replied. He passed the phial to 
her, directed her in detail what to do, and returned 
to the front of the hall as if from a mere conference 
upon household matters. Meg went back to the 
kitchen. She failed to notice there that one of 
the beggars, a very old man, was missing ; or that 
the window-seat was wet, as if the casement had 
been recently opened and closed again. Nor could 
old Jeremy have called her attention to these 
matters, for upon their return the other beggars 
had so crowded around him at the ale-cask that he 
had seen and heard only them and their clamours. 

Ravenshaw and Sir Clement, having exhausted 
their topic of conversation, were regarding each 
other in silence. Jerningham, as his eyes fell upon 
the front door, suddenly exclaimed : 

" The horse ! Zounds, in this pelting rain 
He seized one of the lanterns and ran to the porch. 



KNAVE AGAINST GENTLEMAN. 

" How now ? The beast is not here ! " He came 
back into the hall, looking puzzled. 

" Perhaps the old man hath put him under roof," 
suggested Ermsby. 

Jerningham went to the kitchen door and called 
Jeremy, who averred he had not been near the horse 
since he had tied it outside the porch. 

" Twas ill tied, no doubt," said Jerningham, "and 
hath got loose and sought shelter. Belike you left 
the stable door open. Go and see ; and look in all 
the penthouses, too." 

Jeremy went out. His return was awaited in 
silence, Jerningham pacing the hall, Sir Clement 
staying motionless at the table s edge, Ravenshaw 
sitting upon the stool before Millicent s room. She 
had not closed the door ; she remained upon the 
pallet, able to see a little of the hall, but herself out 
of the light that came in through the doorway. Her 
thoughts were in confusion ; at last they became so 
clouded that, obeying the impulse of fatigue, she lay 
down on the pallet, without heed of the act ; soon 
she was in a state between anxious waking and a 
troubled dream. 

Jeremy came back, dripping, and said the horse 
was not to be found. 

Berating him for stupidity, his master sent him 
back to the kitchen. Jerningham presently sat down 
upon a chair near the table against which Sir Clem- 



326 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

ent stood. Slowly the minutes passed, while the 
heavy beat of the rain against the casements was 
the only sound. Once Jerningham called out : " Is 
all well with you, mistress ? " 

Millicent, brought to a sense of her whereabouts 
after a moment s bewilderment, answered : " Yes, 
I thank you." The silence fell again. 

At last Jerningham said to Sir Clement : " Those 
rascals yonder need not have all the good cheer 
to themselves. There s better drink than ale left 
in the house." He rose, and summoned Meg from 
the kitchen- 

" Fetch wine," said he. Meg, returning to the 
kitchen, presently reappeared therefrom with a 
flagon and a pewter drinking cup. 

" First fill a cup, I pray you," said Jerningham, 
"and carry it to the lady in yonder room." 

She poured out a cupful, set the flagon on the 
table, and approached the door at which Ravenshaw 
sat. 

" Nay, you shall not pass here," quoth the captain. 

"What, will you deny the unhappy lady that small 
comfort ? " said Jerningham, while Meg paused. 

" No ; I will convey it to her ; but I ll first see 
you drink a cup of the same wine." 

Jerningham shrugged his shoulders, took the cup 
from Meg, drained it, and turned it upside down. 
He then refilled it. Meg carried it to the captain, 



KNAVE AGAINST GENTLEMAN. $2? 

and held it close to his nostrils in handing it. He 
breathed its perfume, eyed it yearningly, then thrust 
his left hand with it into the room. 

" A cup of wine for you, mistress," called Jer- 
ningham. 

Millicent, again roused from half-slumber, was 
too gracious to refuse ; she took the cup, sipped, 
and passed it back to the captain s waiting hand. 
He noticed that the cup was nearly full, but gave it 
back to Meg, though a little reluctantly. Jerningham 
emptied it down his own throat, and filled it for Sir 
Clement, who made one long grateful draught of the 
contents. 

" Fill for yourself, mistress," said Jerningham, 
affably. Meg shook her head, but, nevertheless, 
proceeded to pour out another cupful. Her back 
was toward Raven shaw as she did so, but there was 
nothing in that to strike attention. What Jerning 
ham and Sir Clement saw, however, was this : she 
held the cup with her thumb and little finger, against 
her palm, so that her three other fingers lay across 
the top. Along the inside of her middle finger was 
placed the phial, a narrow tube, tied to the finger 
with fine thread ; the open end of the phial was 
toward the palm, which she had hitherto kept tight 
against it. But now, opening her fingers out above 
the rim of the cup as she poured the wine, she re 
leased a part of the phial s contents into the cup 



328 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

at the same time. The sleight required but a 
moment. 

She put down the flagon, transferred the cup to 
the other hand, and turned toward Raven shaw. 

" Eh ? What ? " exclaimed Jerningham, in feigned 
disapproval, reaching out for the cup. 

" Nay," said Meg, holding it away from him ; 
"hospitality ever, even to them you quarrel with!" 

Whereupon she walked gravely over to the cap 
tain and offered him the cup. 

Ravenshaw had thought he detected approbation 
of himself in this woman s looks at the time of his 
arrival ; and now he thought he might flatter him 
self the approbation still existed. Attributing all to 
her good nature toward him, and not suspecting wine 
in the same vessel, and from the same flagon, as had 
supplied his enemies but a moment since, he grasped 
the cup with a hearty smile of gratitude, and emptied 
it swiftly down his throat. 

Meg received back the cup, placed it on the table 
beside the flagon, and passed silently to the kitchen, 
followed by a faint smile of mirth on the part of 
Jerningham. The smile was supplanted by a look 
of expectant curiosity as Jerningham turned his eyes 
upon Ravenshaw. The captain sat as before, rapier 
in one hand, dagger in the other. Jerningham him 
self had resumed his chair near the table, and Sir 
Clement retained his old attitude. In the little 



KNAVE AGAINST GENTLEMAN. 329 

room, Millicent relapsed into a dreamy half-con 
sciousness, wherein she seemed borne by rough 
winds through black and red clouds ; the room 
appeared a vast space wherein this occurred ; and 
yet always she was vaguely aware of her actual 
surroundings. 

Ravenshaw felt serenely comfortable ; a delicious 
ease of mind and body came over him ; the beat of 
the rain softened into a soothing lull ; the hall grew 
dark before him. He opened his eyes with a start, 
amazed at himself for having let them close. A 
mist seemed to fill the place ; through it appeared 
the faces of his two enemies, a curious smiling ex 
pression upon each. 

"What is it?" cried the captain, sharply, and 
gave his head a shake to throw off the drowsiness 
that invaded him. 

Jerningham s eyes shone with elation. 

" God s death, the wine ! " cried Ravenshaw, stag 
gering madly to his feet. "Methought there was 
an aftertaste. Ye ve played foul with me ! " 

He put his arms against the wall to keep himself 
from falling ; his head swayed, and sank forward ; 
the floor seemed to yield beneath him ; darkness 
surged in upon him, and for an instant he knew not 
where he was or what he was about. But he flung 
himself back to life with a fierce effort, and began 
walking vigorously back and forth in front of his 



330 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

doorway. He knew that his sole hope of resisting 
the drug, if it was what he guessed, lay in constant 
action of body and mind. 

Jerningham sat still ; he had but to wait till the 
captain succumbed, delude Meg with the tale that 
the philtre sometimes began its operation by induc 
ing a long sleep, find means to administer the rest of 
the potion to Millicent, and carry out his original 
design. The beggars were little to be feared with 
out Ravenshaw ; they would drink themselves stupid, 
and on the morrow, while they were snoring or bous 
ing, the unconscious maid could be carried to the 
ship. As for Ravenshaw, once the drug overcame 
him he would be virtually out of the world for two 
days, at least. He could be locked in a chamber, 
and the beggars informed by Meg that he was gone. 
They would doubtless take themselves off when they 
had drunk the place dry. Meg would await with 
interest the termination of the captain s sleep. Thus 
all would pass without bloodshed and without any 
scandal reaching the bishop s ears too soon. Mean 
while, the slightest movement against Ravenshaw, 
or toward Millicent s room, was to be avoided ; it 
would only stir the captain to action opposed to the 
effects of the drug. He was still striving against 
those effects, pacing with rapid steps the small 
stretch of floor he allowed himself, and thrusting in 
the air with his weapons. 



KNAVE AGAINST GENTLEMAN. 331 

He was continually losing his mental grasp and 
regaining it with effort. He wondered how they had 
contrived to drug his wine alone ; doubtless the 
woman had the arts of a witch ; a woman who talked 
so little was not natural. 

How if, in spite of all his resolution, the drug 
should prove too potent for him ? What of the maid 
then ? He shuddered to think of her at the mercy 
of Jerningham, who had doubtless provided all means 
of dealing with her in safety from consequences. 
Should he, Ravenshaw, consign her to the protection 
of the beggars ? Without his masterful and re 
sourceful presence, they were like to prove fickle 
rogues. Should he remove Jerningham forthwith by 
killing him ? If he did so, and then succumbed to 
the drug or to Jerningham s men, how might she 
fare at the hands of the survivors, rascals on both 
sides ? This friend of Jerningham s was the only 
gentleman in the house, and he was without doubt a 
bird of Jerningham s feather. Where had the cap 
tain met him before ? Ravenshaw, calling up anew 
his energies, stopped in his walk to stare at the 
man, and lurched toward him drunkenly. Suddenly 
the captain s face cleared, he stumbled back to the 
doorway, and cried : 

" Mistress, look, look ! " 

So sudden and imperative a cry brought Millicent 
to the threshold, startled, white of face. 



332 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

" Look ! " went on Ravenshaw. " Tis he that 
night in the street in February they would not 
let you go but I compelled them ! And one gave 
me the slip a man with a Spanish hat a thick- 
bearded Ah ! twas you, you, you ! " He had 
turned his gaze upon Jerningham. " That was the 
beginning, I trow ! Ah, mistress, who were your 
enemies that night, and who was your friend ? " 

She stood bereft of speech, her hand against the 
door-post, recognising Sir Clement indeed, and dis 
mayed at the frown which to suddenly enlightened 
eyes was a betrayal of the truth on Jerningham s 
face. And then she wondered at the wild, drunken 
movements of Ravenshaw, who had resumed his 
rapid pacing of the floor in a fresh struggle with the 
persistent opiate. 

" The man will never sleep," said Ermsby, in a low 
tone, to Jerningham. " He will outwalk your medi 
cine. You are not like to have him in a worse state 
than he is in now. Let me put an end to him while 
he is thus." 

"But Meg " objected Jerningham. 

" If I give him a thrust in my own quarrel, she 
cannot blame you. Come ; my weapons are itching." 

" Why do you wish to slay him ? " 

" For the sport of it, i faith." Sir Clement s face 
lighted up with cruelty. " Tis your only sure way. 
He ll walk out of this cloud presently." 



KNAVE AGAINST GENTLEMAN. 333 

"As you will," said Jerningham, abruptly, after 
a moment s thought. " But tis between you and 
him." 

Sir Clement, without moving, said aloud to the 
captain : 

" I remember our meeting. You boasted you 
could be my teacher with the rapier. I knew not 
then you were Ravenshaw, the roaring captain ; else 
I had not put off the lesson." 

" Lesson put off lesson what lesson ? " mur 
mured the captain, dreamily, swaying and plunging 
as he strode. 

" I said a time might come when I should see your 
skill," Ermsby went on. " I am bound on a far 
journey to-morrow, and may never meet you again." 
He drew his rapier and dagger, and stepped forward. 
" Come, knave ! Remember your insolence that 
night ; for I shall make you swallow it ! " 

However vague an impression the previous words 
had made on the captain s mind, the sight of sword 
and dagger in threatening position roused and 
steadied him. Not fully sensible of how he had 
come to be opposed by these weapons at this stage, 
he met them with the promptitude of habit. The 
steel of his dagger clashed against the other s sword- 
point ; his own rapier shot forth to be narrowly 
diverted in like manner. There was exchange of 
thrust and parry till the place sang with the ring of 



334 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

steel. The jocund heat of battle woke in the cap 
tain s blood, its fierce thrill gladdened his soul and 
invigorated his body. And yet he went as one in a 
dream, with the lurches of a drunken man. But 
dazed as he appeared in countenance, wild and 
uncontrolled as his movements looked, his eye was 
never false as to the swift dartings of his enemy s 
weapons, his hand never failed to meet steel with 
steel. Some spirit within him, offspring of nature 
and practice conjoined, seemed to clear his eye and 
guide his arm, however his body plunged or his legs 
went awry. 

Meg ran in from the kitchen at the first sound of 
steel. Jerningham hastened back and drew her out 
of the way of the fighters, saying : 

"They fell a-quarrelling ; I could not part them. 
See what effect the potion hath upon him ; he should 
sleep now, but for this fighting. I hope twill end 
without blood." 

The beggars, now drunk, were looking over one 
another s heads from the kitchen, not daring to 
enter without the order ; and Jerningham s men, 
drawn from their dice by the noise, were crowded 
together beyond the left-hand doorway. Jerningham 
hoped that Ravenshaw would yet, in a moment of 
exhaustion, yield to the opiate ere Sir Clement found 
opportunity for a home thrust. So he stood with 
Meg at the fireplace, while Millicent, held by the 



KNAVE AGAINST GENTLEMAN. 335 

interest and import of the scene, watched from 
her threshold. The fighters tramped up and down 
the hall. 

" Never with that thrust, good teacher ! " said 
Ermsby, blocking a peculiar deviation of his oppo 
nent s blade from its apparent mark his right 
groin toward his left breast. 

" Nor you with that feint, boy ! " retorted the 
captain, ignoring a half-thrust, and catching on his 
dagger the lightning-swift lunge that followed. 

Furiously they gave and took, panting, dripping 
with sweat, their faces red and tense, their blazing 
eyes fixed. Now the captain threw himself forward 
when there seemed an opening in the other s guard ; 
now he sprang back before a similar onslaught on 
his adversary s part. He swayed and staggered, and 
sometimes appeared to stop himself in the nick of 
time from falling headlong, but always his attack and 
guard were as true as those of Sir Clement, whose 
body and limbs moved as by springs of steel. It 
seemed as if neither s point could ever reach flesh, 
so sure and swift was the defence ; the pair might 
have been clad in steel. 

Ravenshaw had worked back to the front of the 
hall ; suddenly he sprang forward, driving Sir Clem 
ent toward the fireplace. Ermsby made the usual 
feint, the usual swift-following lunge. Ravenshaw 
caught it, but with a sharp turn of the wrist that 



336 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

loosened his grip so that his dagger was struck from 
his hand by the deflected sword-point. Sir Clement 
uttered a shout of triumph, and thereby put himself 
back in the game by the hundredth part of a second ; 
in that infinitesimal time the captain drove his old 
thrust home. Sir Clement dropped, limp and heavy, 
his cry of victory scarce having ceased to resound. 

Ravenshaw turned fiercely about, his sword ready 
for new foes. Startled at the movement, Jerningham 
called his men to seize the slayer. The captain 
shouted to the beggars. These came staggering in 
from the kitchen, but he saw they were helpless with 
drink. The white-bearded fellow was feebly bran 
dishing a pistol which he had made ready for firing, 
the weapon he had pointed at Ravenshaw in the 
road. The captain seized it, turned toward Jerning- 
ham s advancing adherents, and fired into the band. 
A man fell with a groan, but his comrades passed 
over him, and Millicent recognised, as his false beard 
became displaced in his struggles, the fellow who 
had denounced Ravenshaw in her father s garden. 
The captain hurled himself upon the other men ; 
brought down Cutting Tom with the sting of his 
rapier ; felled Goodcole with a blow of the pistol ; 
dashed through the opening he had thus made in 
their ranks ; pitched forward as if at last all sense 
had left him ; spun around, and grasped at the air 
like one drowning, and fell heavily against the front 



KNAVE AGAINST GENTLEMAN. 337 

door, closing it with his weight. He stood leaning, 
his head hanging forward, his arms and jaw falling 
loose. 

"No more, men!" cried Jerningham, though the 
half-dozen appalled survivors needed no command to 
refrain, any more than the beggars, who were stum 
bling over their staves. " The knave hath slain Sir 
Clement Ermsby, but he is done for, too. Now, 
mistress, for a better lodging ! " 

The captain, mistily, as if at a great distance, saw 
his enemy clasp the girl s waist. He tried to move, 
but could not even keep his feet save by bracing 
himself against the door. Suddenly, as the maid 
drew away from Jerningham s face of hot desire, 
Ravenshaw was thrown forward by a violent push 
of the door from without. Staggering to the table, 
he turned and looked. In stepped the old cripple, 
soaking wet ; behind him was a portly, fat-faced gen 
tleman, followed by several rustic varlets armed with 
pikes and broadswords. Lights flared in the porch, 
and with the sound of the rain came that of snorting, 
pawing horses. 

"Well met, Master Etheridge," spoke Ravenshaw, 
thickly. " Look to your niece." 

Jerningham stared in chagrin ; Millicent ran with 
a cry of joy to her Uncle Bartlemy. Then the 
captain said, "Thank God, I may now go asleep!" 
and fell full length upon the floor. 



CHAPTER XX. 

HOLYDAY S FURTHER ADVENTURES. 

" O, when will this same year of night have end? " 

The Two A ngry Women of A bington. 

MASTER HOLYDAY at first thought himself lucky 
to be left alive, though naked to his shirt and bound 
to a tree by hempen cords which were tied around 
his wrists behind him, and around his ankles. But 
he soon began to doubt the pleasures of existence, 
and the possibility of its long continuance, in his 
situation. There was a smarting pain between his 
eyes, his face felt swollen all around those organs, 
his arms ached from their enforced position, the chill 
of the night assailed his naked skin. 

He bemoaned the inconveniences of a stationary 
condition, and for the first time in his life realised 
what it was to be a tree, rooted to one spot all its 
days. He no longer deemed it a happy fate that the 
gods bestowed on the old couple as a reward for 
their hospitality, in the Metamorphoses, that of 
being turned, at their death, into oaks. And he 
became swiftly of opinion that the damsel who 
escaped the pursuit of Apollo by transforming herself 

338 



HO L YD AY S FURTHER ADVENTURES. 339 

into a laurel would have been wiser to endure the 
god s embraces. And yet, as an accession of damp 
ness mist, if one could have seen it in the black 
ness of the forest set his bare legs trembling and 
shrinking, he envied the trees their bark ; and as 
each arm felt its cramped state the more intolerably, 
he coveted their freedom of waving their limbs about 
in the wind. At this, he strained petulantly to move 
his wrists apart, and, to his amazement, the cord 
yielded a little. He exerted his muscles again, and 
the hemp eased yet more. A few further efforts 
enabled him to slip free his hands. In their haste 
his two despoilers had made their knots carelessly. 
They had been more thorough in fastening his 
ankles. But, bending his knees, and lowering his 
body, he set to work with his fingers, and after many 
a scrape of his skin against the bark, many a protest 
of discomfort on the part of his strained legs, he set 
himself at liberty. Surprised at having been capable 
of so much, he stepped forward with the joy of re 
gained freedom, but struck his toe against a fallen 
bough, and went headlong into a brake of brambles. 

Cursing the darkness, and his fate, with every one 
of the hundred scratches that gave him anguish of 
limb and body, he backed out of the thicket, and 
moved cautiously in the opposite direction, holding 
his hands before him, and feeling the earth with his 
toes before setting foot in a new place. 



34 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

" This is what it is to be a blind man," quoth he. 
Often, despite his precautions, he hurt his feet with 
roots and sticks, and cut them upon sharp-edged 
stones. He began to think he was doomed to a 
perpetual labour of wandering through a pitch-dark 
forest ; it seemed so long since he had known peace 
of body and mind that he fancied he should never 
again be restored to the knowledge. He knew not, 
in the darkness, which way he was going ; he moved 
on mainly from a disinclination to remain in one 
place, lest he should experience again the feelings 
of a rooted plant. 

He began to speculate upon his chances of fall 
ing in with dangerous beasts, and upon the probable 
outcome of such an enconnter. He had known 
of a man upon whom a threatened buck had once 
wrought the vengeance so vastly overdue from its 
race to mankind ; in his poaching expeditions with 
Sir Nicholas the vicar he had often shuddered with a 
transient fear of a similar fate. In those expeditions 
he had always had company, had been armed and 
clad ; the strange sense of helplessness that besets 
an undressed man was a new feeling to him. 

At last, to his temporary relief, he came out of 
the wood, as he knew by the less degree of dark 
ness, the change of air, and the smooth turf which 
was delicious to his torn feet. But presently the 
turf became spongy ; water oozed out as it gave 



HO L YD AY S FURTHER ADVENTURES. 341 

beneath his feet. He turned to the left, think 
ing to avoid the marsh without entering the wood 
again ; but the ground became still softer ; a few 
more steps brought him into sedgy pools several 
inches deep. 

"This is worse than the wood," he groaned, and 
put his face in what he took to be the direction of 
the trees. But the farther he went, the deeper he 
sank in water. He now knew not which way to 
go in order to find the wood, or even the compara 
tively solid turf on which he had formerly been. So 
he stood, railing inwardly against the spiteful destiny 
that had selected him for the butt of its mirth. 
He had a sensation of being drawn downward ; he 
remembered, with horror, the stories of people sucked 
under by the marshes, and he lifted first one foot 
and then the other. He kept up this alternate 
motion, trying each time to set his foot in a fresh 
place, and yet fearing to move backward or forward 
lest he find himself worse off. The dread of becom 
ing a fixture in the earth came over him again, as a 
greater probability than before, and impelled him to 
move his legs faster. 

"Would I were a morris-dancer now, with practice 
of this motion," he thought, as the muscles of his 
legs became more and more weary ; and he marvelled 
understandingly at Will Kempe s famous dance to 
pipe and tabor from London to Norwich. " Better, 



34 2 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

after all, to be a tree," he sighed, "and not have to 
toil thus all night lest the earth swallow me." 

His legs finally rebel] ing against this monotonous 
exercise, he resolved to go forward whatever befall ; 
and just at that moment he saw, at what distance he 
could not determine, a faint light. He uttered a cry 
of satisfaction, supposing it to be a cottage window, or 
a lantern borne by some night-walking countryman. 
As it moved not at his cry, he decided it was a cot 
tage window, and he hastened toward it, through the 
tall grass, careless how far he sank into the marsh. 
But, as he drew near, it started away from him ; then 
he told himself it was a lantern, and he called out to its 
bearer not to be afraid, as he was but a poor scholar 
lost in the fen. The light fled all the faster. As 
he increased his pace, so did it. At last, out of 
breath, he stopped in despair. The lantern stopped, 
also. He started again ; it started, too. 

" Oh, churl, boor, clodpate, whatever thou art i " 
he shouted. " To treat a poor benighted traveller 
thus, that means thee no harm ! These are country 
manners, sure enough. Go to the devil, an thou 
wilt. I ll no more follow thee." 

But as the light now came to a stand, he ran 
toward it, thinking the rustic had taken heart. He 
was almost upon it, when suddenly it separated into 
three lights, which leaped in three different direc 
tions. Knowing not which to follow, he stood be- 



HOLYDAY S FURTHER ADVENTURES. 343 

wildered. After a moment, he made for the nearest 
light ; it disappeared entirely. He turned to watch 
the others ; they had vanished. 

"Oh, this is ridiculous!" he said. "This cannot 
be real. I perceive what it is. It is a dream I am 
having ; a foolish, bad dream. It has been a dream 
ever since since when? I was writing a puppet 
play, and I must have fallen asleep ; I wrought my 
mind into a poetic fever, and therefore my dream is 
so troubled and wild. My courtship of that maid, 
but no, that was in bright day, tis certain, and tis 
never bright day in dreams. Well, when I wake, I 
shall see where I am, and learn where the dream 
began ; perchance I am still at that horrible tree. 
No ; alas ! these aches and scratches, this wretched 
marsh, are too palpable. Tis no dream. Would it 
were. Perhaps those rascals killed me in the wood, 
and I am in hell. Well, I will on, then, till I meet 
the devil ; he may condescend to discourse with a 
poor scholar ; he should have much to tell worth a 
man s hearing ; no doubt, if he cannot talk in Eng 
lish, he can in Latin. Ah, what ? I am again on 
terra firma : but terra incognita still. I ll go on till 
something stops me. Oh ! " he ejaculated, as he 
bumped against a tree. " Here is another wood. Or 
is it the same wood ? I know not ; but I will on." 

A brief uncovering of the moon the same which 
revealed to Millicent the huddled roofs of Marshlei^h 



344 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

Grange gave Holyday a view of his surroundings. 
Looking back across the fen, he saw what must 
be the wood from which he had come. He stood, 
therefore, on the border of a second wood. He 
knew the wind was from the west ; hence, noting 
the direction in which the clouds were flying, he 
perceived that his course had been southward and 
from the river. He ought to be on familiar ground 
now, which he had often scoured with the parson 
and their fellow poachers ; but ere he could assure 
himself, moon and earth were blotted out, and he 
was again in a world of the black unknown. 

Turning his back to the marsh, he traversed the 
second wood. A swift, loud wind raced over the 
tree-tops, bringing greater dampness. He came into 
what might be a glade, or a space of heath, which 
he proceeded to cross. As he had been gradually 
ascending in the past few minutes, he had no fear 
of another bog at this place. He was by this time 
ready to drop with fatigue. Stumbling over a little 
mound, he fell upon soft grass. He lay there for 
some minutes, resting, till his body seemed to stiffen 
with cold. Then he rose, and plunged wearily on 
in despair. Suddenly, to the joy of his heart, he 
heard voices ahead. 

" I ll take oath tis no deer," said one. " Come 
on ; the keeper is abroad in this walk ; I tell you 
I spied the candle in s window to light him home." 



HOLYDAY S FURTHER ADVENTURES. 345 

" I ll have a shot at it, for all that," said another. 

Poachers, thought Holyday ; and they were speak 
ing of him. He flung himself down, just in time 
to hear the twang of a crossbow where the voices 
were, and the whizz of a bolt through the air where 
his body had been. 

" Fore God, thou hast laid the thing low," said a 
third voice. Recognising it, Holyday leaped up with 
a cry, and ran forward, calling out : 

" Sir Nicholas ! oh, Sir Nick, thou poaching ras 
cal, tis I ! " 

" God save us, tis a ghost ; a human ghost ! " 
cried the first speaker. 

" Tis a white thing on two legs, sure," answered 
the vicar, with trepidation. 

" Tis the devil come for you ; he spoke your name," 
said their companion, affrightedly ; and instantly came 
the sound of feet running away like mad. 

Holyday pursued, shouting, " Tis I, Ralph Holy- 
day ! " But the poachers, hearing the name, and 
thinking it to be the spirit of Holyday come to 
announce his own death, were soon quite out of 
hearing. 

Losing their direction, and knowing his wornout 
legs were no match for their fresher ones, Holyday 
sank to the earth, ready to weep with vexation. 

" I see," he wailed. " Tis a mockery devised 
to torment me. To lift me out of the mire of 



346 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

despair into the very arms of my friend, and then 
to fling me back deeper ! A fine joke, no doubt, 
on the part of Heaven ; but why one poor scholar 
should provide all the mirth, I do not clearly per 
ceive. Was it indeed Sir Nick, or was it but an 
illusion of mine ears ? Tis all the same. Well, 
I will sit shivering here till daylight ; what else 
can I do ? " 

But suddenly came the rain, a wind-driven deluge, 
showing its full fury at the outset. In a trice the 
scholar was drenched ; the drops seemed to beat 
him down ; there was no surcease of them. He 
ran for cover, and presently gained that of another 
part of the wood. But even the trees could not 
keep out this downpour. Water streamed from the 
branches upon his head and body. He was flung 
upon, buffeted, half-drowned. Never had he received 
such a castigation from man or nature. He thought 
the elements were arrayed against him, earth to trip 
and bruise him, air to chill him, fire to delude him, 
water to flog him to death. But on he went, moved 
always by a feeling that any spot must be better 
than that whereon he was. At last he saw another 
light. 

" Nay, nay," said he ; "I am not to be fooled so 
again. Go to, Jack-with-the-lantern ! I chase no 
more will-o -the-wisps." 

But he bethought him that such a rain would put out 



HOLYDAY S FURTHER ADVENTURES. 347 

any false fire ; moreover, he was in a wood, on high 
ground. And then, as he approached, the light took 
the form of a candle in a window. He remembered 
what the poacher had said. This must be the keeper s 
lodge ; if the candle was still in the window, the 
keeper had not yet come home, the rain had caught 
him too. The keeper being still abroad, his door 
might not be fastened. With a sense of having 
reached the limit of endurance of the rain s pelting, 
for his thin shirt was no protection, he dashed 
blindly for the window, which was on the leeward 
side of the lodge. He felt his way along the front 
of the house to the entrance, pushed the door open, 
and stepped into a low, comfortable apartment, like 
the kitchen and living room of a yeoman s cottage. 
Out of the rain and wind at last, his grateful legs 
bore him across the room to a bench. He sat down, 
nestling back to a great deer-skin that hung against 
the bare wall of wood and plaster. 

At one side of the room was a door to another 
apartment ; at the back was a ladder-like set of 
wooden steps leading to a trap- way in the ceiling. 
Holyday had scarce observed these details by the 
candle in the window, when a coarse female voice, 
as of one suddenly roused from sleep, called out from 
the other room : " Is t thou, Jack ? Time thou wert 
home ! hear the rain." 

Holyday kept silence. Then he heard a bed 



348 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

creak as under the movements of a heavy body. 
The woman was coming out to see what had made 
the noise. And he, clad only in the briefest of 
shirts ! A double terror shook him ; he sprang 
across the room and blew out the candle. The door 
opened, and a heavy, unshod tread sounded upon the 
floor. 

" Ecod, the light s out ! " said the woman. "And 
the door open." She found her way in the dark to 
the door which Holyday had neglected to close upon 
entering. " Twas the wind, I wis. Fool Jack, to 
leave the door ill-fastened ! Well, he is served right, 
for the wind hath blown out his candle. I must 
make another light, forsooth." 

Holyday, standing perfectly still near the window, 
heard the woman grumbling about the task of strik 
ing a light. He felt himself blushing terribly in the 
dark ; he was surely undone. But with a timely 
inspiration, and glad for once that his feet were bare, 
he went tiptoe back to where he had sat, stepped 
over the bench, and slipped behind the deer-skin, 
flattening himself as much as possible against the 
wall as he stood. 

The woman got the candle aflame, looked around 
the room, replaced the light in the window, and went 
back to the other chamber. Hearing the bed creak 
again as it received her weight, Holyday came out 
from his hiding-place. What should he do in order 



HOLYDAY^S FURTHER ADVENTURES. 349 

to profit for the rest of the night by the comforts 
of this abode without discovery ? He knew who 
this woman was, and who Jack, her husband, was. 
He had fallen foul of tnis keeper before he had left 
for London, and the keeper was a fellow who would 
take revenge when occasion offered. Pondering on 
the situation, Holyday was almost of a mind to 
face the stormy night again rather than risk capture 
by the man in such circumstances. Before he could 
make up his mind, he heard a gruff voice outside 
ordering a dog to its kennel. It was Jack s voice. 
Master Holyday fled panic-stricken up the narrow 
stairs, through the open trap-door. 

He was in a place of darkness. He forgot that 
the height of the cottage which served but to 
house an under-keeper and his wife, and was not the 
principal lodge pertaining to this chase forbade 
that the upper story should be more than a mere 
loft ; but of this he was speedily reminded by a bump 
of his head against a rafter. The loft was warm and 
probably unoccupied, for Jack rarely had a guest. 
The rain upon the roof made a din in Holyday s ears. 
He felt his way to one end of the place, and lay 
down, near a small window. He heard Jack entering 
below, swearing at the storm, fastening the door, 
and finally joining his spouse in the sleeping-cham 
ber. There was some conversation in low tones, 
and then the house was still. 



35O CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

Holyday s foot struck against the end of a wooden 
chest. Crawling to it, he opened the top, and found 
what he had hoped for, soft garments in which 
to lie. He tore off his wet shirt, rolled himself up in 
what seemed to be a woman s gown, Jack s wife 
required dresses of ample capacity, and sank away 
in sweetest comfort to oblivion. 

He woke from a dream of delicious warmth and 
wondrous light, and found the sunshine in his face. 
His window was toward the south. The sun had 
passed the line of noon. Holyday gathered himself 
up ; surveyed the garment of russet wool he had 
slept in ; and finally dressed himself in it in proper 
manner. It hung loose upon him, but it covered his 
nakedness. 

A creak of the stairway drew his eyes toward the 
trap. There rose into view the frowsy head and fat 
face of Jack s wife. 

" Ecod, I knew I heard somebody ! " she cried, 
staring at Holyday fiercely. " And dressed in my 
clothes, too ! Oh, thou thief, I ll tear thy skin from 
thee ! " 

She came up the steps as fast as her bulk allowed. 
But Master Holyday, with one glance at her great 
clenched fists, kicked open the casement behind him, 
fell upon all fours, and backed out of the window, 
from which he dropped as the woman reached it. 
He alighted on a bank of flowers, scrambled to his 



HOLYDAY S FURTHER ADVENTURES. 351 

feet, and, holding his skirt above his knees, trusted 
all to his bare legs. He heard the woman s furious 
threats from the window, but tarried not to answer. 
Plunging through the forest with the new strength 
derived from his long sleep, he was soon far from the 
cottage. Easing into a walk, he crossed heath and 
fields till he came in sight of a pleasant mansion on 
a green hill. Between him and the hill lay a road, 
which he must needs cross to reach Sir Nicholas s 
house. He gained this road, and, seeing nobody 
about, walked along it some distance so as to skirt 
the base of the hill. Unexpectedly, from a lane he 
was passing, came a resonant voice : 

" Well, God- a -mercy ! what transformation have 
we here ? " 

Holyday turned, and beheld Captain Ravenshaw. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

THE CAPTAIN FORSWEARS SWAGGERING. 
" My follies and my fancies have an end here." Wit without Money. 

WHEN Ravenshaw came to his senses, after losing 
them on the floor of the hall, he gazed around in 
wonder. He was in a soft bed, in a handsome room 
which he had never seen before. Bright sunlight 
streamed through an open casement which let in 
also the music of birds. Beside his bed lay his 
clothes, neatly arranged ; his sword and dagger ; 
and Master Holyday s puppet-play, which he had 
carried in his doublet. At sight of the manuscript, 
full remembrance rushed upon his mind. Though 
his bodily craving was to sink back on his pillow, 
and a fierce ache was in his head, he leaped out of 
bed. There was too much to be learned and done. 

He pounced upon the ewer and basin he saw at 
hand, and speedily soused himself into a more live 
and less fevered state. While putting on his clothes, 
wondering where on earth he was, he looked out 
of the window upon a sweet prospect of green 
hills, fields, a few distant sun-touched roofs, and a 

352 



THE CAPTAIN FORSWEARS SWAGGERING- 353 

far-off steeple among trees. It was plain that he 
looked from a house on a low hill, and that noon 
time had arrived. 

A door opened, and in was thrust the head of a 
man whose blue coat betokened a servant, and whose 
manner declared a rustic. 

" Dod, then your worship be up ! " said this fellow, 
awkwardly entering. " Young mistress did vow she 
heard somewhat stirring. I ask your worship s par 
don. If your worship had called " He set about 
trussing the points of the captain s doublet and hose. 

" Who art thou ? " asked Raven shaw. 

"Your servant, sir. To tell truth, sir, Master 
Etheridge s servant, sir ; but yours while you be 
here, your worship." 

" Master Etheridge ? Master Bartlemy Etheridge, 
meanest thou ? " 

" Yes, sir, by your leave, sir. He bade me attend 
in the gallery here, sir, to serve your worship an you 
called." 

" This is his house, then ? " 

" Yes, sir ; his country-seat, your worship, not 
that he hath any town house, begging your pardon." 

" How came I here ? " 

" Dod, upon a stable door we found loose at 
Marshleigh Grange last night. I fecks, I ll never for 
get such rain ; and to be roused out of bed in the 
black o the night, too ! But as to fetching your 



354 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

worship hither, the young mistress wouldn t come if 
you were left ; so master must needs bid us seek 
somewhat to bear you hither upon. And never once 
you woke, e en when me and Dick took off your 
clothes and put you to bed." 

A strange warmth glowed in the captain s soul. 
Lost in his thoughts, he passed out to the gallery 
as soon as he was dressed. It was a wide, airy 
gallery, with doors along the sides, and a window at 
each end. In one of the windows sat a figure, which 
rose the instant he appeared. It was Millicent. For 
a second he paused, fearing she would meet him with 
her old scorn, or flee down the stairs. But she stood 
motionless, returning his look with some timidity, 
blushing and pensive. 

"So," said he, quietly, "you would not come if 
I were left." 

" I was much your debtor," she faltered. 

" And you, watching here, heard me stirring, and 
sent the manservant ? " 

" Why, I was watching here," she replied, con 
fusedly, "lest my father should come unawares. 
We were seen and followed, Master Holyday and 
I, and my uncle thinks my father would go first to 
Master Holyday s house, and then come hither. 
But let him come what way he will, I can see him 
afar from this window." 

" And how if } ou see him ? " 



THE CAPTAIN FORSWEARS SWAGGERING. 355 

" There is an old chest in my aunt s chamber that 
my uncle hath made ready, with holes bored in it for 
air. They will lock me in, and feign that the key is 
lost, and that the chest hath not been opened this 
year." 

" Your uncle hath stood your friend indeed in 
this." 

"Yes, he and others, more than I deserve. 
My uncle is no coward, in truth, save to his wife, 
and when he is in London against her will and 
knowledgCo" She smiled faintly. 

" He must have shown courage enough to Master 
Jerningham to fetch you off safe and me, too, 
when I was o erthrown at last by their drug." 

"Why, of a truth, my uncle came to that place 
with so many men every Jack on the estate, and 
all that could be roused quickly in the village that 
Master Jerningham would have done ill to contest. 
The heart was taken out of him, I think ; four of his 
men were killed, and of the rest, those that had come 
with me fled when they saw their leader slain." 

"Four men killed, troth!" said Ravenshaw, "of 
whom I shall be asked to give account." 

"But you will not be asked," she replied, quickly. 
" Twas in self-defence and in defence of me. But 
there will be no question made of the affair. Master 
Jerningham seemed as much to desire that as as 
my uncle. He hath his own reasons ; he said he 



3 5 6 CAPTAIN RA VENSHA W. 

and his men would keep silence. So my uncle 
agreed to say nothing ; those drunken beggars and 
the rascals that betrayed me will hold their tongues 
for their own sake ; and Master Jerningham said he 
would dispose of the slain." 

" But the slain have friends, that gentleman will 
surely be inquired after." 

" Master Jerningham said he could explain his 
disappearance, and the other men s. I know not 
how, but I would warrant he spoke in good faith." 

" More false dealing, belike. I ll go and see." 

" Nay ! whither would you go ? " Her face showed 
alarm. 

"Back to that house. I must see how matters 
stand there. I must seek out the knaves that 
betrayed you, and learn what hath befallen Master 
Holy day. Where did they leave him ? " 

" Alas ! I know not where twas. They beat him 
down in the wood, and left him, tied to a tree, one 
said ; and they robbed him of his clothes. I should 
not know where to look for the place." 

" Be of good cheer. I ll find him, though I search 
the forest through; and, if he be alive, I ll not eat 
or sleep till you are wed." 

" Then twas indeed your planning ? " she queried, 
looking not too well pleased. " I had begun to think 
as much, after last night." 

" Why, troth, I ah did give the plan my 



THE CAPTAIN FORSWEARS SWAGGERING. 357 

countenance," admitted the captain. " But we durst 
not let you know I was privy to it ; you thought so 
ill of me arid rightly. But the bringing you to 
Marshleigh Grange was pure treason against us. 
I was too trustful ; but I will undo my error if 
Holy day be alive." 

" I marvel why you should have plotted so for 
me." 

"To save you from wedding Sir Peregrine Med- 
way ; and to put you out of Master Jerningham s 
ken, as well. You said any husband was better 

" But why chose you Master Holy day ? " 

"Faith, is he not young, and a gentleman, and 
comely ? And he will be well provided for upon his 
marriage, e en though he bring a wife without dowry. 
And then I was pleased at the chance of benefiting 
him, too. I could think of no better remedy than a 
husband, and no better husband than he." 

Millicent was silent a moment, her brows a little 
bent as if she would say something she knew not 
how to say ; then seeing him move, as if to depart, 
she resumed : 

" You spoke of Master Jerningham as well as Sir 
Peregrine." 

" Yes ; I knew of his intent toward you. What 
I said last night was true. He employed me to 
what will you think of me ? " 

" But you did not," she said, holding his glance. 



358 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

" No," he answered, in a low voice. 

"Why did you not?" 

" Faith, I cannot tell I was formerly a gentle 
man and you were troth, when I talked with 
you in the garden, I could not. And when I came 
again, though I kept my false name, knowing how 
people held my true one, twas indeed to plan your 
escape from that old knight." 

" I know not how I can ever prove my gratitude, 
and for last night." She paused, and dropped her 
eyes ; her heart beat fast while she awaited his 
answer. 

" You have put the debt on my side," he said. 
" You would not come from that place if I were 
left. And but now you were attentive to my 
waking." 

Evidently the answer fell short of her hopes. 

"Oh," she said, a little pettishly, "I am on the 
watch here lest my father come, as I told you. As 
for your waking, yonder clodpate is a stupid fool. 
My uncle thought, being drugged, you might sleep 
all day and longer ; but I said you were no ordinary 
man." 

"Troth," said Ravenshaw, smiling, "I somewhat 
broke the drug s power by resisting till your uncle 
came. And now that I am so soon awake, the 
sooner may I seek your husband that shall be." He 
turned toward the stair-head. 



THE CAPTAIN FORSWEARS SWAGGERING. 359 

" But hear me, I pray 1 If you go back there, you 
hazard your life again." 

He touched his sword and dagger, which he had 
girded on in the bedchamber. " I still carry these," 
quoth he ; " and I must thank you for recovering 
them." 

" Nay," said she, blushing again ; " the sword never 
left your hand. There was but your dagger to seek. 
But go not back there, I beg of you ! " She could 
scarce conceal the depth of her solicitude. 

"Why, why, mistress, fear not for me. There is 
no danger." 

" I entreat you not to go." 

" Nay, the more you concern yourself for my 
safety, the more am I bound to go and serve you." 

"Take men with you, then." 

" Nay, your uncle must keep his men here to 
protect you. But one to show me the way, the 
old beggar that summoned your uncle last night, - 
perchance he came hither with us." 

" No, he stayed with his comrades ; my uncle paid 
him for his service." 

" I must e en thank your uncle for that ; and for 
his care of me." 

" I will take you to him, and my aunt," she replied, 
eagerly, seeing a chance of delaying his departure 
and gaining time for dissuasions. 

But he seemed to read her thought ; he took a 



360 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

sudden resolution, and said : " Nay, I ll thank him 
when I return. Farewell, and " 

" You will return soon ? " she said, with quiver 
ing lip. 

" Ay, with Master Holyday or news of him," 
he answered, and turned to the servant : " Show 
me the way to Marshleigh Grange, and make haste." 

Avoiding her glance, he hurried down the stairs 
ere she could frame a further objection. The ser 
vant, wonder-eyed, followed him. When he was out 
of the house, he shook his head, and said within 
himself : " Another minute in her presence, and 
twould have been she that bade me go, I that 
begged to stay." 

He dared not look back ; had he done so, as he 
hastened down the hillside, he might have seen that 
she had changed her window for one which looked 
toward his road. When he disappeared in the lane 
to which his man conducted him, she dropped her 
face upon her arms. 

The lonely plain whereon the Grange stood was 
nearer than he had supposed. When he reached the 
house, there was no sign of life about it. He called 
and knocked ; and finally was admitted to the hall 
by Jeremy. The old man was its only occupant, 
living or dead. He was engaged in washing out 
sundry stains that reddened the floor. 

" Hath your master taken them away ? " asked 



THE CAPTAIN FORSWEARS SWAGGERING. 361 

Ravenshaw, bluntly, nodding toward the stained 
places. 

"Ay, but a short while since," said the old man, 
unconcernedly. " I trow they are to have sea burial. 
He came and had them carried aboard a ship. He 
and they are e en now bound seaward." 

" That is strange. Where is the woman, Mistress 
Meg ? " 

" He hath ta en her along on the ship. Troth, 
she swore she would not stay another night under 
this roof. There was much talk atwixt em. She 
is to be a queen on an island where tis always 
summer." 

Wondering if the old man had lost his wits, the 
captain asked, " And you are alone here ? " 

"Ay, and well enough, too. I have no mind to 
go a-voyaging. I shall have all the milk, now, and 
all the eggs ; and no foolish woman prating ever 
of ghosts and witches. I ll have some peace and 
quiet now." 

" The beggars have gone, then ? " 

" Ay ; when they came sober, and saw slain men 
upon the floor, they fled as if the hangman were 
after em. Ha ! I knew enough to hide the chickens 
over night." The old man chuckled triumphantly. 

From what further information he could draw, 
the captain made out that Jerningham s own men 
had embarked with him, and that Cutting Tom s 



362 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

followers had gone their way unheeded. Not till 
days afterward was he assured that Jerningham 
had indeed set sail for some far country. To the 
bishop and others, the voyager had accounted for 
the absence of Ermsby and Gregory by a tale of 
their having preceded the vessel to Gravesend, 
where they were to come aboard. He and his ship 
were never heard of again. 

The captain left the Grange, thinking next to 
inquire of Sir Nicholas the vicar. If Holy day had 
not contrived to find his way to his old friend s 
abode, the parson would doubtless help search the 
woods for him. Ravenshaw s attendant knew where 
Sir Nicholas lived. The way passed near his mas 
ter s house. The captain made him lead at a rapid 
pace. It was when they were emerging from a lane 
into the road that Ravenshaw came upon Master 
Holyday, attired in the loose-hanging garb of the 
keeper s wife. 

The captain, after the briefest salutations, grasped 
the scholar s arm, and ran with him up the hill 
toward Master Etheridge s house. Millicent, seeing 
them coming, and recognising only Ravenshaw, made 
haste to join her aunt and uncle, who had gone to 
discuss her situation out of her presence. She found 
them in the orchard at the rear of the house. 

To that place, having inquired of the first ser 
vant he met, the captain dragged the breathless and 



THE CAPTAIN FORSWEARS SWAGGERING. 363 

protesting scholar. Millicent s wonder, at sight of 
Holyday s distressed face, was almost equal to that 
of her portly uncle and his stately, angular spouse. 

" Good-morrow, madam," said Ravenshaw, with a 
bow which at once surprised the dame s severity into 
fluttering graciousness. "And to you, sir." He 
then turned to Millicent. " Know you not Master 
Holyday, mistress ? I met him by chance ; he was 
hastening hither for news of you." 

But Millicent s astonishment at the poor scholar s 
appearance had given place to a look of decided 
disapproval. Holyday himself stood red-faced and 
sullen. 

"You are welcome, sir," said Master Bartlemy 
Etheridge, in an uneasy voice. His countenance 
was worked into a painful attempt to convey some 
thing to the captain s mind privately ; in his concern 
upon that score, he paid no heed to Master Holyday, 
whom his wife greeted with a curtsey. 

"I am much bounden to you, sir," said Raven 
shaw. " For your care of me, and your hospitality, 
my gratitude shall balance my want of desert. At 
our last meeting " 

" Meeting, sir ? " broke in Uncle Bartlemy, in 
despair at the evident failure of his facial exertions. 
" I ll take oath I never met you before ; it must have 
been some other gentleman of my appearance." 

" Our meeting last night, sir, I meant," said Raven- 



364 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

shavv, with a smile ; " though, indeed, twas a brief 
matter on my part." 

" Oh, last night, forsooth ; oh, yes, yes, yes," said 
the old gentleman, with a look of infinite relief. 
"Troth, yes, certainly, indeed. And you, Master 
Holyday, God save you. Tis long since I have seen 
you; you have changed much." 

As Uncle Bartlemy s gaze was upon the scholar s 
dress, Holyday s assumption was that the remark 
was concerned therewith. 

"Faith, sir," said he, resentfully, " tis fine manners 
in you to jeer ; my wearing this gown comes of my 
willingness to marry your niece." 

" Oh, indeed ! " quoth Millicent. 

"Troth," went on the poet, miserably, "it hath 
been ill upon ill, e er since I ran away with her. If 
such a night be the beginning of our marriage, 
what shall be the end of it, in God s name ? " 

"There shall be no end of it," retorted Millicent; 
" and no beginning, either. Last night, say you ? 
Ay, you showed bravely then. You are well suited 
in a woman s gown, I think. A fine husband you 
would be, to protect a wife ! " 

The scholar s face cleared somewhat ; turning to 
Ravenshaw, he said : 

" Give me my puppet-play. I ll go back to Lon 
don. You see she will not have me." 

" Softly, softly ! " cried the captain. " Would you 



THE CAPTAIN FORSWEARS SWAGGERING. 365 

mar all at the last, mistress ? Reflect, I pray ; your 
only true safety lies in marriage ere your father finds 
you. You will not bring all my plans to nothing ? 
I do entreat you 

He stopped at a sudden parting of her lips ; he 
looked around to see what alarmed her. There, 
coming from the house to the orchard, were Master 
Etheridge the goldsmith, Sir Peregrine Medway, and 
a ruddy, irascible-looking country gentleman. 

" Plague take it ! " muttered Uncle Bartlemy to 
Millicent ; "this comes of not watching." 

As Sir Peregrine was the embodiment of lagging 
weariness, and the goldsmith was himself well fagged, 
their companion was first within speaking distance. 
With scant greeting for the elderly couple, he turned 
fierce eyes on the scholar. 

" How now ? " he burst out. " Thou unthrift ! 
thou ne er-do-well ! thou good-for-naught ! Wouldst 
run away with my old friend s daughter ? I ll teach 
thee, knave ! " 

But the captain stepped between the elder Holy- 
day and the son, for he felt the quarrel to be his 
own, and saw his painfully reared structure of events 
ready to fall about him. 

11 Sir," he said, " he did it for your behoof ; he 
marries to perpetuate your stock." 

"Sir," replied Holyday the father, "I can attend 
to that myself. I am taking a wife next Thursday ; 



366 CAPTAIN RAVENSHAW. 

my rascal son would not seek one when I bade him ; 
so I sent him packing ; but now he shall come home 
and be kept out of mischief." 

The goldsmith, coming up, ignored his brother, 
bowed stiffly to the latter s wife, and stood before 
Millicent, his hands open as if he would fain clutch 
her. 

" Thou baggage, thou rt caught in time ! Thou 
shalt not sleep till thou rt tied in marriage to Sir 
Peregrine." He made to grasp her by the arm. 

" Touch me not ! " she cried, with a sudden 
thought. " You have no power over me ; I am 
married ! " 

Her father stared. Master Holyday, taken by 
surprise, said, emphatically : 

" Not to me, that I ll take oath ; so I am a free 
man, of a surety ! " 

Ravenshaw could have struck him down. But 
Millicent, after one crestfallen moment, said, quietly : 

" Not to Master Holyday, certainly ; but to this 
gentleman." And she went to the captain s side. 

There was a moment s general silence, during 
which Sir Peregrine, overcome by his long exertion, 
leaned limply against a tree. 

"To this villain?" cried the goldsmith; "this 
cozener, this notable rascal, this tavern-cheat. Tis 
not possible ; there hath not been time ; not even 
for a license." 



THE CAPTAIN FORSWEARS SWAGGERING. 367 

Millicent looked up at Ravenshaw s face, whereby 
he knew she desired him to take up the ruse. 

" Sir," quoth he, "there hath been more time than 
you wot of ; we have all been in the plot together 
for three days now." 

" A pack of knaves ! " shouted the goldsmith. 
"An there hath been a marriage, twill not hold. 
She was bound by pre-contract." 

" Tis not true," cried Millicent. " Sir Peregrine 
knows I would not receive his tokens." 

"Oh, good lack!" quoth the old knight, faint of 
voice ; " tis all as well. I am glad your daughter 
hath released me, Master Etheridge. She is much 
inclined to jealousy, I see that ; belike I should give 
her cause, too. I thank her for my liberty." 

The goldsmith cast on the old knight a look of 
wrathful disgust, and walked precipitately from the 
place, breathing out plagues, murrains, and poxes. 
Sir Peregrine laboriously followed him. But Holy- 
day s father dragged the scholar aside to talk with 
him privily. 

Ravenshaw turned to Millicent. " The device 
served well. But the truth must out in time. Your 
father will have his revenge then." 

"Alas, I have told a great falsehood," said she, 
braving her blushes. " I know not how to clear my 
soul of it unless you " She hesitated. 

" I, mistress ? What can I do ? " 



3 68 CAPTAIN RA VENSHA W. 

"Make it the truth," she faltered, dropping her 
eyes. 

For a time he could not speak. 

" Oh, mistress ! " he said, at last, with unsteady 
voice ; " would to God I might But think you of 
my reputation." 

" You will amend that ; tis no great matter." 

" I am no worthy mate for you." 

" You have fought for me." 

" You will learn to hate me again ; you hated me 
but yesterday." 

" Twas because I had loved you the day before ; 
else I should not have heeded." 

" You are a world too good for me." 

" Troth, I am not good in all eyes. Sir Peregrine 
is glad to be rid of me, and Master Holyday will not 
have me." 

" I am penniless." 

" My uncle hath said he would provide for me." 

Ravenshaw looked at Uncle Bartlemy, who had 
been calming his wife s wonder. The old gentleman, 
with a fine attempt at hidden meaning, thus delivered 
himself : 

" Sir, I owe you much upon the score of our first 
meeting whereof you spoke awhile ago. If you 
can be content here in the country, with a wing of 
our poor house, while we live twill all be Milli- 
cent s when we are buried " 



THE CAPTAIN FORSWEARS SWAGGERING. 369 

Ravenshaw felt her hand steal into his ; he turned 
and took her gently in his arms. 

Master Holyday, having come to an adjustment 
with his father, callously interrupted this embrace 
with the words, " Give me back my puppet-play now, 
and I ll wish you joy, and pardon all my calamities, 
even this dress." 

Ravenshaw drew forth the manuscript from his 
doublet, saying : " If you return to your father s 
house, we are like to be your neighbours. And your 
friend Sir Nicholas shall earn a fee in spite of you." 

" Troth, then, I ll write your nuptial hymn," said 
the poet, tenderly handling his puppet-play. " Twill 
have a rare sound, * Epithalamium to the Beauteous 
Maid of Cheapside and the Roaring Captain. " 

" Nay, the roaring captain is no more," said Ra 
venshaw. " I am a gentleman again. Believe it, 
sweet." 

" I care not what you are only that you are mine," 
quoth Millicent. 



THE END. 



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New Amsterdam and its characters the sturdy Frisians 
of that colony. The hero is one of the errant adven 
turers from the Lowlands ; and the account of his love 
for the wilful Antonia, as difficult and capricious as she is 
charming, and his slow winning of her through the tangle 
of misunderstandings and adventures that beset him, makes 
a story of vivid and unhackneyed interest. In short, 
Antonia is romance of the kind that it is a delight to 
find." 

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